Andhra Pradesh House Appeals For Scheduled Caste Status To Dalit Christians

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

The Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh State August 26 urged the Union Government to take steps to grant Scheduled Caste (SC) status to Dalit Christians or SC converts to Christianity.

A resolution moved in the Assembly by Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in this regard appealed to the Centre to amend the Indian Constitution to provide for granting the Scheduled Caste status to Dalit Christians.

The move was supported by the ruling Congress, the main Opposition Telugu Desam Party, Praja Rajyam, Telangana Rastra Samiti, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

However, the rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Lok Satta party opposed the resolution. BJP leader Kishan Reddy said the move would promote missionary activities and conversions to Christianity.

Lok Satta president Jayaprakash Narayan said the Supreme Court had already passed orders opposing such a status to Christian converts. The move would hit the interests of the Scheduled Castes, as the existing 15 percent reservation in government jobs and other benefits would have to be shared between the SCs and the Dalit Christians.

But Chief Minister Reddy underlined the need for granting SC status to Dalit Christians “as they continue to face the same discrimination as their Hindu counterparts.

Providing SC status to Dalit Christians will also enable the community to enjoy the same political rights and socio-economic and educational benefits as other SCs, he pointed out.

The MIM demanded that Dalits converts to Islam should also be given the SC status.

The chief minister assured the Assembly that the government was positively inclined to also grant the same status to Dalit Muslims.

Christian leaders have welcomed the resolution. An amendment to the Constitutional Order of 1950 would be sufficient to meet their long-pending demand, they said.

Executive secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Federation of Churches, Catholic priest, Father Anthoni Raj Thumma, pointed out that the Constitutional Order had been amended twice to extend SC status to Dalit Sikhs and their Buddhist counterparts.