A post claiming that during the tenure of the Congress government(2004-14), posts in various departments ranging from Supreme court judges to university vice-chancellors to Indian ambassadors to secretaries in different ministries are filled up with Muslims and Christians whereas the count of Hindus in these posts is meagre is doing rounds on social media. In the post, this was attributed to to Muslim-Christian reservation. Through this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: During the tenure of Congress government(2004-14), posts in various departments ranging from Supreme court judges to university vice-chancellors to Indian ambassadors to secretaries in different ministries are filled up with Muslims and Christians whereas the count of Hindus in these posts is meagre and this is due to Muslim-Christian reservation.
Fact: According to the Supreme Court of India and the Department of Personnel & Training, the count of Hindus appointed as Supreme court judges and IAS officers is very high compared to Muslims and Christians. Data provided in the post is not authentic. Also, the Constitution of India does not provide any reservation on the basis of religion. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
The data provided in the post comparing the count of Hindus to that of Christians and Muslims in various departments and Ministries appears to be arbitrary rather than authentic data. Sheer count of Hindus in various departments as mentioned in the post raises concerns about the authenticity of the data.
Appointment of Supreme Court Judges:
According to the post, the total number of supreme court judges appointed during congress regime (2008) is 23. Among these Muslims and Christians are 20 in number and Hindus are only 3. However, according to the information provided on the Supreme court website, during the 10-year UPA (Congress regime) i.e. 2004-14, a total of 46 judges were appointed as Supreme court judges. The count of Hindus among these is very high compared to Muslims and Christians. Also, a person is appointed as a Supreme court judge by the union government after receiving a proposal from the Chief Justice of Supreme court after consulting the collegium of the four senior-most judges of the Supreme court. The role of executive in this process is limited. Hence the numbers about supreme court judges is wrong.
Appointment of IAS Officers:
The information regarding IAS officers is provided on the Department of Personnel & Training website. Just by taking into account the category of the candidate mentioned in the list and by following the general convention of guessing religion by the name, the total count of Hindus is far greater than the count of Muslims and Christians during 2008–2014.
Also, contrary to what is stated in the post, Constitution of India does not allow for any reservation on the basis of religion. Though we could not find specific data related to various category posts mentioned in the post, it is pretty clear that the numbers are random & inauthentic.
To sum it up, the data provided in the post is not authentic.
