Dalit outfits have launched a campaign to stop any move to grant the Scheduled Caste (SC) status to those from castes who claim to have converted to Christianity and Islam. The campaign comes on the heels of the Centre appointing a commission headed by former Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishan to examine the issue.
Ashok Bharti, who leads the National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Organisations (NACDAOR), said that such inclusion would betray the Poona Pact of 1932 between Mahatma Gandhi and B R Ambedkar, which had eventually become the basis of the reservation granted to the SCs in the Constitution.
"The Poona Pact was an agreement between Gandhi, who represented the savarna Hindus, and Ambedkar, who represented Dalits. Muslims and Christians were not a party to it," Bharti, who on Sunday launched the campaign seeking donations from SCs and other well-wishers, said. The basis for the reservation to the SCs is 'untouchability', and not, like OBCs, their social and educational backwardness.
"Our social and educational backwardness is a consequence of the religious dogma of our religion, which is untouchability, which isn't the case with those who converted to Islam or Christianity," Bharti said. The NACDAOR argues this was why Dalit Christians and Muslims were included in the OBC list at the Centre and various state OBC lists.
Currently, over a dozen petitions in the Supreme Court have sought the inclusion of Muslims and Christians in the SC list. The NACDAOR says it will fight the writ petition by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, National Council of Dalit Christians and other outfits in the court and mobilise people on the ground.
The organisation says the Dalits among Christians and Muslims should start their fight by demanding from their respective clergy reservations as SCs in the institutions their respective communities run. It will give its representation to the Centre appointed commission, Bharti said.