Dalit Christians demonstrate as Sangh launches counter offensive

From John Dayal, New Delhi

18 November 2009

As about a thousand Dalit Christians and Muslims, led by Bishops and several Members of Parliament, demonstrated at Jantar Mantar on Parliament Street today, the Bharatiya Janata party launched a counter offensive to stop converts from the former untouchable castes of Hinduism getting the Constitutional rights so far given to Hindus, and also to those who converted to Buddhist and Sikhs to escape the caste stigma.

The BJP ideology holds Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs to be part of Hinduism, a position rejected by believers of those faiths. The Scheduled Caste affirmative action includes reservations in government jobs and educational institutions, as also representation in Parliament, State legislatures and local self government institutions. There are other legal safeguards to prevent atrocities against Dalits.

The Christian and Muslim Dalit Protest, with people mostly from the Southern States and Punjab softly cautioned the Congress and its allies that the community would look for other political options if their rights were not restored to the January 1950 pristine position – affirmative action without reference to religion. The rally was inaugurated by Delhi Archbishop Vincent Concessao and Catholic Bishops Conference general secretary Abp Stanislaus of Gandhinagar.

Earlier this month, several thousand Muslims had gathered in Patna to make a similar demand, under the leadership of OBC leader Laloo Prasad Yadav and Dalit leader Ram Vilas Paswan, both former Union ministers. The meeting accused the Congress of not being honest in its commitments made over the years to Christians and Muslims of Dalit Origin.

The meeting in New Delhi today saw the Archbishop of Chennai, and even some Congress MPs say they would sharpen the struggle till the rights to Scheduled caste status were restored.

These rights were taken away by a Presidential Order in 1950 which affectively limited political and economic reservations to those Dalits who chose to remain in the Hindu fold. Later, under political pressure, the rights were restored to Dalits an Neo Buddhists, Muslims and Christian continue to be denied rights under upper caste fear of large scale conversions to these “non Indian” religions, and a fear among Hindu Dalits that newcomers to the Scheduled Caste list would eat into their share of the privileges, both arguments affectively denied by the agitators.

On the eve of the Delhi rally, the BJP accused the Congress conspiring to usurp the rights for quota enjoyed by scheduled castes in the Constitution by sticking to its stand on including converted Dalit Christians and Muslims in SC fold."The Congress-led UPA government is adamant to cover the converted minorities and Christians within the quota fixed for scheduled castes under the Constitution," BJP general secretary T C Gehlot told reporters in Patna.

The Press Trust of India quoted Gehlot, also a member of the SC Reservation Rights protection Manch, said the organisation would conduct 'Honour Constitution' functions in every district in the state between November 26, 2009 and January 26, 2010 against the Dalit Christian and Muslim demands.