No mention of minorities in Budget speech reflects mindset of BJP govt: Derek O'Brien

Accusing the government of overlooking all kinds of social, religious, and linguistic minorities, OBrien said it reflects the governments mindset that perpetuates hate crimes. He said the same mindset is reflected in actions like the cancellation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act FCRA for several minority run institutions, and the National Commission for Minorities remaining headless for over a year.

Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien on Friday pointed out that no minority groups found mention in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget speech, saying that the only time the word was brought up in her 85-minute-long speech was while talking about 'minority shareholders'. Accusing the government of overlooking all kinds of social, religious, and linguistic minorities, O'Brien said it reflects the government's mindset that perpetuates 'hate crimes'. ''In an entire budget speech, there was no mention of any religious, social or linguistic minority. The only minority mentioned were minority shareholders. This stems from a mindset that perpetrates hate crimes,'' O'Brien, the leader of the TMC in Rajya Sabha, told PTI. He said the same mindset is reflected in actions like the cancellation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) for several minority run institutions, and the National Commission for Minorities remaining headless for over a year. ''The FCRA has been cancelled for over 2000 institutions run by the Christian community. Three out of four students who go to educational institutions run by Christians are from other communities. The position of chairperson and members in the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) are vacant, and no meetings have been held for the last year,'' he said. The posts of chairperson, vice-chairperson, and members in the National Commission for Minorities have been vacant since the previous chairman Iqbal Singh Lalpura retired in April 2025. O'Brien added that there was also no mention of social minorities like the LGBTQ community in the Budget address. ''That means this hate for minorities is part of the DNA of this government. They could not even find a Muslim and give them this much- the respect of having the minority affairs minister from the by far the largest minority community,'' the TMC leader said. Taking a swing at chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, O'Brien said, ''Now you know why the Assam chief minister makes those videos. It is the policy of this government to hate and hit the minorities.'' Sarma has been at the centre of a major political controversy over his remarks on 'Miya Muslims', and later over a now-deleted video posted on the state BJP's social media which showed him purportedly taking aim with a rifle and firing at two individuals - one wearing a skull cap and the other with a beard - with the caption ''point-blank shot.'' A total of Rs 3,400 crore is the budgetary estimate for the Ministry of Minority Affairs in the Union Budget this year, which is Rs 50 crore more than the budgetary estimate of the previous financial year and approximately Rs 1,240 crore more than the revised estimate of 2025-26.

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