BJP Opposes SC Benefits to Converted Dalit Christians & Muslims

BANGALORE, May 10, 2010, 17:05 Hrs (DAIJIWORLD):

At a time when the B S Yeddyurappa’s BJP government in Karnataka is rocked by the controversy over the alleged rape charges against the state’s food and civil supplies minister Hartalu Halappa, who had to quit over the issue, the party’s national spokesman Ramanath Kovind visited Bangalore to threaten a nation-wide agitation if the UPA government went ahead with the recommendations of the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission on grant of the benefits of reservation to the converted Dalit Christians and Muslims by including them in the list of Scheduled Castes.

The BJP national spokesman demanded that the party would be launching a nation-wide agitation if the UPA government refused to reject the Ranganath Mishra commission report and granted SC benefits to Dalit Christians and Muslims.

The commission’s recommendation for inclusion of convert Dalit Christians and Muslims in the SC list in addition to the 15 % reservation to minorities under backward class quota in education, government jobs and social welfare schemes was totally unjustified.

The converts would also be eligible for political reservation in elections, thus reducing opportunities for the Hindu Dalits as they have to share their reservation facilities with convert Dalits, he said claiming that the educational level of convert Dalit Christians and Muslims was higher than the Hindu Dalits.