BJP Threatens Agitation Over SC Status To Dalit Christians

HYDERABAD, Andhra Pradesh, Aug. 28, 2009, 10.00 Hrs (SAR News):

In the wake of the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly adopting a resolution seeking Scheduled Caste status to Dalit Christians, the rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) August 26 threatened to launch an agitation against the state government’s move.

Terming the resolution anti-Constitutional, president of the state unit of the BJP and former Union minister, Bandaru Dattatreya, told reporters here that it was the ruling Congress government that wanted government benefits extended to converts to Christianity.

He pointed out that the Supreme Court had ruled in 1986 that the Constitutional benefits provided to the Scheduled Castes could not be extended to those who converted to Christianity.

Dattatreya said the Congress government’s move would deprive the Scheduled Castes of their legitimate rights provided in the Constitution. “The decision of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy government is nothing but vote bank politics,” he charged.