Hindu radicals campaign to stop govt. from extending SC status to Christians

Today a nation–wide campaign has been launched by the Hindu nationalists, asking the central government to stop extending the Scheduled Castes Rights to Christian and Muslim Dalits.

According to reports, the Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh at a recently concluded national executive meet in Dharward urged people to stop supporting the Christian Dalits to achieve their SC rights.

A report in the Daily News and Analysis said the RSS was “heading for a direct confrontation with the church and the United Progressive Alliance government on proposed reservation to Schedule Caste converts to Christianity.”

Chariman of the All India SC Reservation Protection Forum, Vijay Sonkar Sastria, castigated the central government for its decision to extend SC status and has instigated a group to march in New Delhi, today.

According to the former MP with the opposition Bharatya Janata Party (BJP), giving every Dalit the same rights will deprive Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist Dalits of their job and education quotas.

Senior RSS functionary Ram Madhav was quoted by DNA as saying, “the government is shamelessly agreeing against the proclaimed tenets of Christianity and is going by the false promises made by the Church merely to harvest a few more souls. Let the Pope first declare that there was a caste system in his religion.”

A 1950 presidential order granted Hindu Dalits certain benefits as members of Schedules Castes. Buddhist and Sikh Dalits were later included, except the Christians and Muslims who were left out.

According to Father Cosmon, executive secretary of the Scheduled Castes/Tribes and Backward Class Commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, "those groups only want to prevent the economic and social development of Christians and Muslims, depriving them of their human dignity."

Meanwhile, the National Coordination Committee for Dalit Christians, a joint program of CBCI and NCCI, has decided to hold a dharna on November 29 in New Delhi to press for their demands.