The Modi government has been accused of minority appeasement by the supporters of the party and the popular right-wing handles on Twitter. The increase in budgetary allocation for free coaching to minority students has been vehemently criticized. However, the budgetary allocations are always for media consumption and the devil lies in detail.
The trolls on Twitter who limit their intellectual abilities in 140 characters fall for optics and do not wish to go in detail. As per a report by News18, “There has been a dip not only in the funds disbursed by the government but also in the number of beneficiaries pursuing higher education in both private and government universities.”
The Ministry of Minority Affairs looks after the welfare of Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains. However, given the fact the Muslims are the majority within the minority community and economically most backward, most of the benefits go to this community. The minority welfare ministry has got more money under the Modi government. But the total number of beneficiaries has declined over the years.
The ministry provides scholarship under three schemes (post-matric scholarship, pre-matric scholarship and merit-cum-means scholarship) and these schemes are for people from an economically weaker section within the community.
As per the data from the ministry, the Post-Matric scholarship (pursuing higher education) and Merit-Cum-Means scholarship (pursuing technical and professional education) have witnessed a reduction in funds as well as the number of beneficiaries in last five years of Modi government.
The amount spent on Post-Matric scholarship has been reduced to 412.8 crore rupees in 2018 from 598 crore rupees in 2014 while the amount spent on Merit-Cum-Means scholarship was reduced to 3,711 crore rupees in 2018-19 from 3,711 crore rupees in 2014-15.
The number of beneficiaries of Post-Matric Scheme was reduced to Post-Matric Scheme. The number of beneficiaries decreased despite exponential increased in applicants. The number of applicants increased to 20 lakh in 2018 from 15.9 lakh in 2014.
In Merit-Cum-Means scholarship, the number of beneficiaries was reduced to 1,03,690 in 2018 from 1,38,770 in 2014.
The reduction in funds and number of beneficiaries suggests that the increase in allotment to ministry (4,700 crores in 2018-19 against 3,711 crore rupees in 2014-15) is just lip service. The ministry is not spending the whole allocated amount and the majority of the amount goes back to government accounts. It is very clear from the above data that the Modi government did not increase the spending on the welfare of minorities.
The Modi government increased allocation to Ministry of Minority Affairs for the consumption of ‘pink sheets’ but actually the number of beneficiaries is declining every year. So, the right-wing Twitter handles and supporters of the party should not criticize the government without a detailed study of the issue.