By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: To press their demand for inclusion of Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims in the category of Scheduled Castes, a massive dharna and rally were organized by various Christian religious organizations yesterday at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
They were demanding amendment in the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950 so that Christians and Muslims of Scheduled Caste origin could avail the Scheduled Caste rights.
The Constitutional Order 1950 restricted SC status to only SCs professing Hinduism. The order was twice amended to give SC benefits to Dalit Sikhs and Dalit Buddhists. But Muslims and Christians of the similar class were excluded.
The dharna was inaugurated by Rev. Dr Vincent Concesso, Arch Bishop of Delhi. Rev. Dr B S Devamani, chairperson of NCCI Commission for Dalits, Bishop Charles Soreng, Arch Bishop Stanislaus Fernandes and many other Christian leaders addressed the rally and dharna.
Rajya Sabha Member Ali Anwar Ansari, president of All India Pasmanda Mahaz, the group which has been spearheading the movement for reservation for Dalit Muslims, also attended the rally.
The organizers – National Council of Dalit Christians, Catholic Bishops Coference of India and National Council of Churches in India – demanded tabling of the report of National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities in the Parliament and implement its recommendations. They also demanded the government to give appropriate answer to the query of the Supreme Court to the writ petitions demanding the deletion of the para 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950 to extend SC status to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims.
When TwoCircles.net asked Father Ruby from Punjab sitting on the dharna as to why the government is not amending the Constitutional Order 1950 to accommodate Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims in the SC category, he said: The government is afraid that all would become Christians. But the same government has included Dalit Sikhs and Dalit Buddhists by amending the order twice.
Then there was no such thinking. It means the government is no more secular. This government from top to bottom is not democratic. It is anti-Christian anti-Muslim. In election time they make promises but only to forget later. They have cheated us.
To the same question, Ali Anwar Ansari, MP, Rajya Sabha, said: The government is not honest. It is now exposed. The UPA constituted Ranganath Misra Commission and Sachar Committee. Bu the same government is not allowing discussion on Sachar report, nor is it tabling the Misra report.
“I want to ask if these two commissions are illegal children of the government. If it has constituted them in the first place then they should implement their reports,” the MP said adding that minus BJP and Shiv Sena, all parties are demanding implementation of the two reports, yet the government is unmoved.
He said Dalit Muslims are here at the Dalit Christians rally to show solidarity on this issue.
Christian religious leaders are attending this rally for the cause of the Dalit Christians, Muslim religious leaders should also come out to support Dalit Muslim reservation, he demanded.