As attacks on religious minorities draw global concern, the Indian state’s own institutions meant to protect them are quietly being emptied of power
WHEN international human rights groups flag rising religious persecution in India, the government’s response is often swift and dismissive. Officials reject the criticism as biased or politically motivated. Yet within India’s own administrative system, a quieter and more consequential erosion is underway.
Statutory institutions created to protect the rights of religious minorities, bodies empowered by law and mandated by the Constitution, are increasingly dysfunctional. Some exist only on paper. Others operate without leadership, members, or transparency. Together, they form a pattern that critics say amounts not to neglect, but to deliberate institutional hollowing.
At the centre of this erosion are nearly half a dozen key institutions, including the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI), the Central Waqf Council (CWC), the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC), the Haj Committee of India, and the now-defunct Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF). And to some extent, the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language, an autonomous body under Ministry of Education. These bodies collectively serve six religious communities officially notified as minorities, accounting for more than one-fifth of India’s population.
Commission Sans Commissioners
The most telling symbol of this decline is the National Commission for Minorities. Established in 1978 and granted statutory status under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, the NCM was designed as a watchdog to investigate complaints, monitor safeguards, and ensure that minorities receive equal protection under the Constitution.
Today, it has no members.
When Sardar Iqbal Singh Lalpura completed his tenure as chairperson in April 2025, the commission ceased to exist in any functional sense; no chairperson, no vice-chairperson, no members. A body that, by law, should consist of seven people has been reduced to an empty office.
The commission’s own website reflects this void. Under the heading “Composition of the National Commission for Minorities,” visitors find nothing at all. A blank space where the columns should have some names.
This did not happen overnight. During more than a decade of the BJP rule, the NCM has not had a fully constituted panel since 2020. Lalpura himself served for years as the sole remaining member, presiding over what many described as a lame-duck commission, visible enough to claim existence, but powerless to intervene meaningfully as hate crimes, communal violence, and discrimination surged.
Education Rights in Limbo
A similar fate is that of National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions. Created under the NCMEI Act, 2004, the body is tasked with protecting minority institutions’ rights under Article 30 of the Constitution, which guarantees minorities the freedom to establish and administer educational institutions. The commission is supposed to function as a quasi-judicial authority. In reality, it is barely functioning at all.
Justice (Retd) Narender Kumar Jain, the last chairperson, completed his term in September 2023. Another member retired earlier that year. Today, only one member, Dr Shahid Akhtar, remains. A body meant to adjudicate disputes now lacks the quorum to do so effectively.
Administrative staffing tells a similar story. Key positions remain vacant or are filled on deputation, including the post of deputy secretary, which has been unoccupied since March 2024. For thousands of minority-run schools and colleges facing regulatory pressure or legal uncertainty, the absence of a functioning NCMEI means delays, denials, and silence.
Waqf Oversight and Administrative Drift
The Central Waqf Council, responsible for supervising waqf properties across India, presents another case of prolonged neglect. The council, chaired ex-officio by the Union minister for minority affairs, should have 20 members. It has not been reconstituted for three years.
Observers point to deeper concerns. The appointment of a non-Muslim officer as secretary, reportedly unfamiliar with waqf laws, has raised questions about institutional sensitivity and competence. Even basic transparency is missing. The council’s website has remained largely non-functional, limiting public access to information about decisions, finances, or oversight.
Given the scale of waqf properties in India and their vulnerability to encroachment and mismanagement, the council’s paralysis has far-reaching implications.
Financial Bodies Without Accountability
The National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation was established in 1994 to support minority entrepreneurs, students, and self-help groups through concessional financing. Yet today, its public-facing transparency is minimal.
The NMDFC website does not clearly list its chairperson, board members, or detailed performance metrics. For an institution handling public funds meant for socio-economic upliftment, the absence of basic disclosure has drawn sharp criticism.
The Maulana Azad Education Foundation, once a key source of scholarships for minority students, was shut down entirely in 2022. The government cited administrative overlap. Critics described the move as abrupt, unjustified, and emblematic of a broader retreat from minority welfare commitments.
Shrine Without Custodians
Even institutions tied to religious heritage have not been spared. The Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, administered under the Dargah Khwaja Saheb Act, 1955, has been without a statutory chairperson or committee since June 2023.
The shrine’s official website lists only officials from the Ministry of Minority Affairs under its “Who’s Who” section. The absence of designated custodians for one of South Asia’s most important Sufi shrines underscores how deeply vacancies have penetrated minority governance.
The Haj Committee vacuum
Perhaps the most striking example of institutional abandonment is the Haj Committee of India. The 23-member body oversees pilgrimage arrangements for hundreds of thousands of Indian Muslims each year. Since March 31, 2025, it has had no members at all.
The committee’s decline was gradual but relentless. Two vice-chairpersons retired in 2024. Chairperson A P Abdullakutty completed his term in March 2025. No replacements were appointed.
For six years, despite repeated court orders, the government has failed to constitute a full committee under the Haj Act, 2002. Critics argue that the delay is politically inconvenient: the law requires the nomination of three Muslim MPs, and the BJP currently has none in Parliament.
The inaction eventually led to contempt proceedings. A public interest litigation filed by Haj activist Hafiz Naushad Ahmad Azmi prompted the Supreme Court to direct the government in March 2023 to constitute the committee within three months. The order was ignored.
In an affidavit submitted in April 2024, the government admitted that mandatory nominations by the presiding officers of both Houses of Parliament had not been made. The admission did little to change the outcome. The committee remains defunct.
‘A Systematic Incapacitation’
For many minority leaders and rights activists, these vacancies are not isolated failures but part of a pattern.
Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan, president of the All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat and former chairperson of the Delhi Minorities Commission, describes it as a “well-laid-out plan.”
“Minority and human rights watchdogs are being emptied of their power, punch, and reach,” he said. “Budgets are slashed. Funds go unspent. And institutions are left leaderless so they cannot question or intervene.”
Khan points out that earlier governments, across party lines, generally appointed Muslims to lead minority institutions, reflecting demographic reality. That convention, he says, has been abandoned. “Even waqf bodies are being opened to people with little stake or understanding of minority concerns,” he noted.
He also questioned the effectiveness of the NCM’s work. “It has little to show beyond symbolic gestures. Its reports lack substance, and Parliament is routinely misled with inflated claims of performance.”
Silence in Parliament
Author and activist Dr John Dayal sees the prolonged vacancies as a constitutional failure. He notes that as of December 2025, the NCM had been defunct for over eight months, precisely when minorities face rising violence, educational exclusion, and economic marginalisation.
“The near-collapse of the NCMEI alone has left thousands of institutions without legal recourse,” Dayal said. “These are not optional bodies. They are constitutional necessities.”
Equally troubling, he added, is the silence of elected representatives. “Minority MPs have barely raised these issues in Parliament or outside. The neglect continues without political cost.”
Dr Michael Williams of the United Christian Forum recalled attending an International Minority Rights Day event at the NCM office that was presided over not by commissioners, but by bureaucrats. He noted that no Christian member has been appointed to the commission since 2019.
Commenting on the state of affairs of the NCPUL, Dr Syed Ahmad Khan, National President of the Urdu Development Organisation, said that over the past three years neither a vice-chairperson has been appointed nor has the process of reconstitution been completed. He has written to the prime minister urging the early constitution of the NCPUL’s governing body. Dr Khan noted that he had earlier also written to the Union Education Minister, but without any result, adding that the absence of a governing body continues to hamper the functioning of the country’s largest Urdu organisation.
Beyond Symbolism
Taken together, the erosion of these institutions raises a fundamental question: can minority rights be protected when the bodies designed to safeguard them are systematically weakened?
For nearly 20 per cent of India’s population, these commissions and councils are not symbolic gestures. They are mechanisms of accountability. Their paralysis leaves grievances unheard, violations undocumented, and constitutional promises unfulfilled.
In an era of heightened communal tension, the absence of functioning minority institutions is not bureaucratic drift. It is a political signal. Whether by design or indifference, India’s statutory minority safeguards are being hollowed out from within, and the cost is borne by those they were meant to protect.
