26 August 2005

Press Statement issued by Dr Udit Raj, National Chairman, All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations and Dr Joseph D’souza, National President, All India Christian Council

The Supreme Court is justified in calling the ploy of the Union Government.  The reply of the Government to the Honourable Supreme Court on 23 August 2005 on the issue of extending Scheduled Caste Reservations to Dalit Christians is misleading the honourable Court and the nation. Although the Attorney General stated that there was a commission specifically constituted for the purpose, surprisingly the reply did not mention even the name of the Commission! 

Dr Joseph D’ souza, President, All India Christian Council, said: “A complete search for the Commission on the Internet of the Government of India site for hours yields no results.  Some sources said the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission known as the National Commission for Religious & Linguistic Minorities is the Commission.  The terms and references of the Commission are too broad that the issue of Dalit Christians is not at all given a point of reference to. The mentioned Commission was formed through a resolution on 29 October 2004 to submit a report in six months.  Is there any report either completed or in draft form? When a member of the Commission was contacted, he pleaded ignorance wondering if the Commission had anything to do with extending reservations to Dalit Christians.

Dr Udit Raj, National Chairman, Confederation of SC/ST Organisations, asked: “When Hindu and Sikh Dalits are being given reservation, why not Christian and Muslim Dalits?  In fact Christian Dalits deserve reservations much more than Sikhs because overall representation of Sikhs in Governance, Business and other important fields is better than that of Christians.  Sikhs, being only two per cent of the population in the country, have got highest posts like the Prime Minister and the President whereas Christians, who are numerically more, are yet to get any prominent posts.”

The Council and the Confederation therefore demand that the government stop giving lame excuses and act upon this issue.  The CPI (M), CPI and the DMK, along with several secular parties, are for extending the reservations to Dalits Christians. Why is the United Progressive Alliance playing delay tactics in bringing a positive response to what was once a Bill about to be in Parliament but was dropped due to a small technicality of not giving enough notice? Many commissions like the National Commission on Minorities have already approved of giving reservation to Dalit Christians. Why do we need more commissions again?

 Dr Udit Raj                        &           Dr Joseph D’souza

 National Chairman                           National President

SC/ST Confederation                       All India Christian Council