Church reps meet parliamentarians on future action for Dalit Christians

To mull over the next plan of action in the long-pending case of Dalit Christians, church leaders on Thursday held a brainstorming session with parliamentarians at the Constitution Club in New Delhi.

The joint programme of the CBCI and NCCI, to "ensure justice to Christians and Muslims of Scheduled Caste origin", conjured up the recent developments and sought suggestions from the MPs on ways to accelerate the case for a speedy denouement.

MPs Ali Anwar and JD Seelam urged Christians to be more "vocal and persistent keeping in view the ongoing session of the Parliament in which there is hope of the case being discoursed."

They informed the need for submitting fresh memorandums to the Prime Minister and President quoting their past assurances of undoing the historical error which dismantled the socio-economic rights of Dalit Christians and Muslims.

Briefing on the dalit reality, in his presentation to the parliamentarians, Rev. Raj Bharat Patta of the NCCI, brought to notice the "humiliation and marginalisation of Dalit Christians even after 60 years."

"Although they embraced Christianity, 85% of the Dalit Christians continue to live in the same slum, facing the same tyranny, abuse, beating and killing," he said, adding "We the Dalit Christians are Dalit in every sense of the word viz. ethnically, lineally, racially, socially, economically, culturally, vocationally, geographically, relationally, contextually and emotionally."

He declared that the demand of Dalit Christians was a "struggle for justice; struggle for affirming Human Rights; and struggle for Constitutional Rights."

Concurring with this was Fr Cosmon Arokiaraj of CBCI who noted that Christians were now seeking "democratic means other than taking extreme steps" to bring out justice.

He sought the "intervention of the President of India and the UPA Chairperson who constituted the Ranganath Misra Commission."

He urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to table the Ranganath Mishra Commission's report which emphatically states that by embracing Christianity the economic status of a Dalit does not improve and therefore the reservation status must be extended to all Dalits irrespective of religion.

Last month, hundreds of Christians from different denominations and states convened for a rally at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, shouting for justice and equal status.

They called for the deletion of para 3 of the 1950 Presidential Order which restricted reservation benefits only to Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists.