Sangh Counter-offensive as Dalit Christians demonstrate

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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.