By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: In a clear sign of political warning to the present government at the center, the Congress led UPA, thousand of dalit Muslims and dalit Christians gathered here at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Thursday, demanding Scheduled Caste status. It was the concluding day after three day hunger strike (25th to 27th July) and a mammoth rally at the Ramleela Ground today.
At present dalit converts to Christianity and Islam, can’t get SC status because of the Schedule Caste Order of 1950, paragraph 3 of Indian Constitution which denied SC status to dalit converts to Islam and Christianity.
They demanded from the central government to delete the “discriminatory” Constitutional Order of 1950, otherwise the dalit groups have threatened to wage a political war against the Central government. Dalit Christians and dalit Muslims are a sizeable vote bank in states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Their political opposition has heavy political fall outs for the Congress.
National Coordination Committee for Dalit Christians (NCCDC) and All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz (AIPMM) have planned to raise this issue in the coming elections in every state.
“If the government of India continues to show non-serious approach to our demands then we are going to launch a nation wide campaign, observing coming August 10, as a Black Day. It will be against the draconian and unjust paragraph 3 of the Constitution which denies equal rights to dalit Christians and dalit Muslims,” said Ali Anwar Ansari, head of AIPMM.
“We will also make sure that in the coming elections only those parties get our vote which support our demands,” added Ansari.
The rally was attended by several political leaders including D Raja, Ramvilas Paswan, Brinda Karat, Ali Anwar Ansari, Syed Aziz Pasha and Arch Bishop of delhi Vincent M Concessao besides several others from civil society.
D Raja extended his party’s support to the demands made by dalit groups. Slamming the Congress led UPA for ignoring the demands for equal rights to dalit converts to Islam and Christianity, Raja demanded immediate action on the demands made by these groups.
“We have got several commissions, including the Ranganath Mishra Commission, which recommended the SC status to Muslims and Christians of dalit origin. In spite of all these things the government is only buying time betraying its insincerity over the issue. The government should be taught a lesson for ignoring your demands for equal status,” said Raja.
Syed Aziz Pasha, Rajya Sabha MP criticized the UPA government for “coming up with a new strategy to postpone the demands for SC status to dalit Christians and dalit Muslims.”
The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs in February this year decided to take a decision about the issue only after the completion of caste census, which dalit groups like NCCDC consider just a strategy to “avoid concerns of millions of dalits.”
Pasha also criticized the government for not making its stand clear on a writ petition currently in the Apex court on the same issue, demanding deletion of the “discriminatory” provision of the Constitution.