By Saiyed Danish, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Christian Dalits and Muslim Dalits gathered from all over India on the International Human Rights Day on 11th December to demand their inclusion into the Scheduled Caste (SC) category and be entitled to all kinds of reservations from which the Hindu and Buddhist Dalits benefit.
Janata Dal (United) leader and MP in Rajya Sabha Ali Anwar also showed his support for the protest and said, “I raised this issue early morning in the House also but the opposition did not allow me to speak properly hence I have written a letter to the Speaker of the House to make whim aware the entire issue and I am pained to see severe lathicharge done on peaceful people here and so I stand with them.”
“Religion based discrimination against Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims by the government is continuing for the past 63 years since the Scheduled Caste Order 1950, treating them as less than the citizens of India and persecuting these religious minorities selectively. Now our people clearly see that it is the Congress party and UPA government that put hurdles in our fight to achieve our rights,” said Bishop Nidhinathan.
Father Lut Swami from Tamil Nadu said, “Our only demand is to include Dalit Christians and Muslims into SC list and for that we ready to go to any extent as denial of our rights has reached to a saturation point now.”
Sheikh Sattar, who showed his solidarity at the event said, “Till 1950, the Constitution gave Dalits from all faiths equal reservation but after 10 August of the same year, which we regard as a black day, our rights were snatched by the government and we are fighting to take it back.”
“The government had taken back our right to reservation by saying that except Dalit Hindus, others will not get reservations but Sikh Dalits got their share in 1956 and Buddhist Dalits got reservation in 1990. It has been two since the government has not answers the simple questions put up by the Supreme Court in this regard,” said Haji Ahmad Hawari of All India Jamiat ul Hawareen.
“In the wake of the Writ Petition no. 180/2004 in the Supreme Court, the UPA Government referred the matter to the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities (NCRLM) headed by Justice Ranganath Misra. The commission submitted its report to the Prime Minister in May 2007 itself and it eminently justified our demand and strongly recommended the deletion of the paragraph 3 of the Constitution (SC) Order 1950 to “make the Scheduled Caste net fully religion-neutral like that of the Scheduled Tribe,” reads the press statement of National Coordination Committee for Dalit Christians.
SDPI also showed its presence at the protest right from beginning and actively participated in raising demands of equality. “This is a movement which was long due and it is just fight for equality,” said Azeem Navaid.
The gathering of hundreds of protesters at Jantar Mantar shouted slogans against the government and addressed the attendees through various Christian and Muslim platforms. After the gathering the protesters consolidated themselves for a protest march that is when the situation turned ugly as the police tried to stop them from marching on towards the Patel Chowk Metro station road.
The police, in order to stop their march, lathicharged and unleashed water cannons of the protesters in which some protesters were injured but determined not to leave they sat on the road blocking the traffic in the heart of Delhi or two hours. Later on the protesters gave arrests and all were taken to the police station.
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