Justice delayed for Dalit Christians

Buta Sigh, Government, and Court delays frustrate justice for Dalit Christians
From John Dayal
New Delhi, 23 January 2008
An estimated twenty million Christians whose ancestors converted from the once untouchable castes of medieval India were today left confused if justice for them lay in the courts of law, the Parliament, or just in prayer.
The Indian government at last admitted in the Supreme Court today that various official commissions had indeed recommended that such Dalit Christians [and Muslims] get the same civic rights that are given to Dalit converts to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism without hurting the interests of those communities.
But the Government however still refused to disclose if it was accepting the recommendations of panels headed by former Chief Justice of India Rangnath Misra and National Scheduled Caste Commission chairman Dr Buta Singh, a former Union Cabinet minister and once governor of the state of Bihar. It sought, and was given, eight weeks to come once again before the Court with its response.
Additional Solicitor general of India Gopal Subramaniam presented before a three-judge bench of the Supreme court, headed by chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan, the letter of Dr Buta Singh which said: “The National Commission for Schedule Castes, New Delhi at its meeting held on 18.9.2007 while framing its views on recommendations contained in the report of the National Commission for Religious and linguistic minorities (NCRLM) and The Prime Ministers high level committee – social, economic and educational status of the Muslim Community of the India, concerning specification of Scheduled Caste convents to Christianity and Islam has decided the “Reservation should be extended to them, but the share of 15 per cent of Scheduled Castes should not be disturbed and the element of reservation for these communities (Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians should be determined by the Government keeping in view of their population. As per the direction of the Supreme Court, the overall reservation of 50 percent has to be maintained ’’. Accordingly a communication has been made to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt. of India for further necessary action.”
Mr. Subramaniam, the senior law officer of the government, requested the Chief Justice to give the government time for to make up its mind on the But Singh recommendations. The bench, which also included Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice J.M. Panchal, agreed, despite a spirited challenge by a battery of lawyers appearing for the Christians, including former Law Minister Ram Jethmalani and Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan.
These recommendations by Dr Buta Singh and Justice Misra may call for not an administrative decision as much as a major political position which Congress governments have fought shy of since the then President, Dr Rajendra Prasad – a senior Congressman -- signed a controversial order in 1950 – the year the Constitution of Independent India was signed into law – under pressure from orthodox Hindu political leaders.
That Presidential order effectively made the former untouchable castes to lose all affirmative action privileges such as priority in employment and education if they opted for any religion other than Hinduism. Though this went against India’s secular declarations, the Presidential order was legislated into caste iron law which has been upheld by various courts, including the Supreme Court till a recent challenge in public interest litigation.
The recent legal challenge draws strength from government decisions giving rights of preferential employment and education to Dalits professing the Buddhist and Sikh religions, faiths which, like Islam and Christianity, do not discriminate on grounds of untouchability but whose followers do face real social marginalisation in India’s still morbidly caste-ridden society. Christians and Muslims also face such social infirmity. In several states, Dalits of all faiths carry out the most menial of tasks, including manual scavenging and are amongst the poorest of the poor, living on the margins of villages, doomed to draw water from separate wells and enied any semblance of social equality. It was only late in the twentieth century that many Dalit Christians in several districts could bury their dead in common cemeteries and share church pews with converts from the upper castes. Government studies have shown that remnants of such ostracisation still persist across religious groups,
Dr Buta Singh’s report puts the government in a quandary. It must either challenge the Supreme Court’s entirely arbitrary ceiling of 50 per cent on all reservations for India’s many deprived and depressed communities which go under labels such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other backward Communities and Most Backward communities, or come to Parliament for new laws to devise other creative categories that circumvent the legal limitations.
It may run foul of an increasingly aggressive resistance from India’s upper castes as also from rapidly Hinduised but still very underprivileged communities who feel threatened by any demand, especially from religious minorities, which may seem to cut into the limited cake of government jobs and seats in medical and engineering colleges.
Christians hardly constitute a powerful political block to attract government largesse, and Muslims, who are politically important, face opposition from the Sangh Parivar and a section of the ruling Congress party.
Religious minorities are looking towards a test case in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh where the government, also ruled by the Congress party, wants to help out the very large concentration of Muslim population in the province which constituted a potent vote bank.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court has indicated – going by news agency reports – that it will constitute a seven-member Constitution bench to hear a batch of writ petitions filed in support of and against the four per cent reservations to backward groups among Muslim. Backward communities are not in the same category as Shielded castes, but any legal debate on this segment will cast its shadow on the discourse on rights for Dalit Muslims and Christians, and will boost morale of community leaders. Religious minorities listed as backward communities do get economic, employment and education benefits in several states.
A larger bench of the High Court comprising Justice Meena Kumari, Justice B. Prakash Rao, Justice D.S.R. Varma, Justice A. Gopal Reddy and Justice V. Eswaraiah, is presently hearing the batch of petitions relating to the reservation issue. This bench has indicated it may refer the case to a seven-member constitution bench. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted the government two weeks' time to take a stand on the quotas in state jobs and educational institutions for Dalits among Muslims and Christians.
A very frustrated leadership of the Dalit Christians has held many demonstrations in New Delhi while their appeal has repeatedly been adjourned in the Supreme Court over much of last year.
Dalit Christians are concentrated in parts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, as also in some districts of Punjab, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. But it is only in Andhra and Tamil Nadu that are of political significance. The state governments and several regional parties have extended their support to the Dalit Christiana and Muslims. However, the powerful Bharatiya Janata Party, a significant segment of the Congress party, are aggressively opposed to any concessions to Christians and Muslim Dalits.