Kiren Rijiju is the first Buddhist to be appointed as a minister. He will be assisted by George Kurian, a Christian from Kerala, whose inclusion is surprising as he is not a member of either house of the Indian parliament.
Even during the BJP period, the ministry was headed by the largest minority, Muslims. However, this pattern was broken when Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi resigned a day before his term as a Rajya Sabha member ended in July 2022 and was replaced by Smriti Irani, the Minister of Women and Child Development.
Irani, a Hindu, is married to a Parsi and is assisted by a Christian, John Bala, as the Minister of State.
The appointment of Iqbal Singh Lalpura, the chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, a Sikh, broke the pattern of the post being held mainly by Muslims.
Rijiju was chosen probably because the NDA has no Muslims in either House. It is not clear if any of the allies are willing to resolve this issue by getting a member from the community elected as an RS MP.
In 2014, the BJP appointed RS MP Najma Heptullah as the Minister of Minority Affairs. She resigned in July 2016 and was appointed Governor of Manipur. Naqvi was the Minister of Minority Affairs from 2014 and later promoted to Minister, a post he held until 2019.
He was again appointed Minister in the second term of the Modi government, a term he held until July 2022.
Abdul Rahman Antulai was appointed the first Minister of Minority Affairs by the United Progressive Alliance government in January 2006.
After him, Salman Khurshid (May 2009 to October 2012) and K Rehman Khan (October 2012 to May 2014) became ministers.
