False: The Indian government is planning to scrap the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

Context:

Deccan Herald recently published an article claiming that the central government is likely to remove the Ministry of Minority Affairs. The article dated October 3 read, "The Centre is likely to scrap the Ministry of Minority Affairs — established by the UPA government in 2006 — and merge it with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment." The news was first shared on Deccan Herald's Facebook page. Later, social media users picked up the report and shared the same claim.

In fact:

According to a Times of India article published on October 3, the central government clarified that there is no proposal under consideration to scrap the ministry. Government agency Press Information Bureau (PIB) took to Twitter and clarified that the Deccan Herald report is false. PIB Fact Check wrote, "A media report published in @DeccanHerald is claiming that the Central government is likely to scrap the Ministry of Minority Affairs and will merge it with @MSJEGOI This Claim is #FAKE. No such Proposal is under consideration."

We also found the Press Trust of India (PTI) report, which states that Smriti Irani, the Union Minority Affairs minister, retweeted the PIB fact check which stated that no such plan is currently being considered.

After PIB's response to their report, Deccan Herald published an article on October 3 and clarified that the central government has denied the claim of scrapping the Ministry of Minority Affairs. The news organization wrote, “In response to a Deccan Herald report that the Centre is likely to scrap the Ministry of Minority Affairs and merge it with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MSJE), the government's Press Information Bureau (PIB) on Monday clarified that no such proposal is under consideration."

According to the National Commission of Minorities website, the Ministry of Minority Affairs was carved out of the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment and created on January 29, 2006. This was done under the UPA government regime. This aimed to address issues relating to notified minority communities, namely Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Sikhs, Parsi, and Jain.

The verdict:

The central government clarified that no such decision had been taken regarding removing the Ministry of Minority Affairs. Hence, we have marked this claim as false.