Sangliana Appointed Vice-Chairman of National Commission for Minorities
(December 19, 2009) The Indian government has appointed H.T. Sangliana, who was known
as the super cop of Karnataka, as the vice-chairperson of the National Commission
for Minorities. The appointment was announced through an extraordinary gazette notification
on December 14. Sangliana, who was a member of the previous Lok Sabha (lower house
of parliament), will work under Mohammed Shafi Qureshi, who leads the commission.
It has powers to look into constitutional, legal and civil rights enforcement issues.
He is the first Christian leader from north eastern India to assume the position at
the commission, reports DNA, a national daily newspaper. The federal government set
up the commission in 1992 to protect the interests of Buddhists, Christians, Muslims,
Sikhs and Zoroastrians, all considered religious minorities in India. According to
the newspaper, Sangliana has substantial knowledge of policing and judicial processes
and quite aware of social realities of the country since he is a former member of
parliament. The daily quoted Sangliana as saying his priorities would be to help
channel benefits meant for the uplift of all the communities to which the Constitution
has accorded minority status. Sangliana has drawn up a list of works to be done at
the commission. Sangliana entered politics as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party
but was sacked for backing the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance that rules
the federal government on the nuclear treaty with the United States. In the last
general elections during April-May, Sangliana fought from Bangalore Central on a Congress
ticket but lost to the BJP.