(The following is the text of the statement made to the media by Dr John Dayal on 4 March 2008 on behalf of All India Christian Council and All India Catholic Union while reacting to the comments of Union Welfare Minister Meira Kumar in Parliament on the issue of Dalit Christians.]

New Delhi: A cruel joke has been played by the Government on India's 16 million Dalit Christians in referring to yet another commission their six decade-long peaceful request to be restored Constitutional rights extended to Dalits of other religions.

The Government admits that every single Constitutional authority in the country has upheld the legal and moral validity of the demand of the Dalit Christians. And yet on 3 March 2008, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar told Parliament that matter had been now referred to the National Commission for Backward Classes for consideration.

The Dalit Christians moved the Supreme Court in a Public Interest Litigation, for which the next hearing is scheduled for later this month. After the court was moved, the Government first sent the issue to the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, headed by former Chief Justice of India Rangnath Misra, to suggest if Dalit and Backward Christians and Muslims could be treated at par with other with Scheduled Castes for reservations in government jobs and admission in educational institutions. Justice Misra said the Dalit Christians had a legitimate case for being treated at par with other scheduled castes.

The Government then sent the issue the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, headed by former Union Home Minister Dr Buta Singh, who also ruled the commission had no objection to extending reservation to Dalit Christians and Muslims but the 15 per cent quota for Scheduled Castes should not be disturbed.

Now Meira Kumar says the issue has to be examined afresh in view of the Supreme Court setting a 50 per cent ceiling for reservation to all castes. Since Dalit Christians and Muslims have been classified in some states under other backward classes and the reservation issue is referred to the National Commission for Backward Classes.

Although Kumar says the reservation to Dalit Christians and Muslims is under detailed consideration process which is mandated by law and the Constitution, and that there is no attempt to delay the issue, there is ample reason to suspect the Government's intentions. It did not undertake this lengthy process while extending the reservations and other privileges to Sikhs and Buddhist Dalits some years ago. It is only in the case of the Christian demand that these new regulations have been suddenly discovered.

It may be recalled that the Centre for Public Interest Litigation and several others have filed Civil writ petitions  in the Supreme Court in which it has been requested to declare clause (3) of the Constitution (scheduled castes) order, 1950 as unconstitutional and void as it denied benefits to Dalit Christians and Muslims. Petitions have also been filed in High Courts of Mumbai, Chennai, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

In the final analysis, the issue is one of the Government's political will to extend to Dalit Christians and Muslims the identical privileges enjoyed by Hindu Dalits and also by Dalits professing the Sikh and Buddhist faiths. Most political parties, in the ruling alliance as well as in the Opposition ranks, have supported the cause of the Dalit Christians. These include three major parties – the Communist Party Marxist-led Left Front which rules in West Bengal and Kerala, the Bahujan Samaj Party in power in Uttar Pradesh, and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam which has a Government in Tamil Nadu. The Hindutva Bharatiya Janata Party remains the solitary party to continue to oppose the Christians. But its allies, including Bihar chief Minister Nitish Kumar, have extended full support to the Christians.

The long delay in removing the religious bigotry in the law is both illegal and against the proclaimed secular policies of the United Progressive Alliance. The Government need not wait for the Supreme Court to decide the matter, but can announce its own decision in Parliament through appropriate legislation. The sooner it does so, the better will it be for its own credibility, and for the cause of freedom of faith and justice in India.

(Dr John Dayal is Member of the National Integration Council, National President of All India Catholic Union, Secretary General of All India Christian Council and President of the United Christian Action, Delhi.)