mayavathi's demand for sc rights to dalit muslims, christians

The following is the text of the Joint Statement made to the media by Advocate Salahuddin Shibu, National President, All India Dalit Muslim Morcha, and Dr John Dayal, Secretary General, All India Christian Council and member, national Integration Council, at the conclusion of seminar "Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians: Restoration of Reservations and rights under the Constitution’ organized at Asha Deep, Wazir Hasan Road, by the aicc and the AIDMM. The seminar was attended, among others, by eminent writer Mudrarakshash, former Lucknow university vice chancellor Prof Roop Rekha Verma, Rev Moses Parmar, All India Christian Council, Mufti-e-shahr Hazrat Maulana Irfan Mian Firangimahali, Advocate Mushtaq Ahmed Siddiqui, ex-Member, UP State Minorities Commission, Mr. Wasim Haider, Mr. M A Haseeb, President, Muslim Samaj, Chowdhary Ale Umar Qureshi, president, Jamiat-ul Quresh, Uttar Pradesh, Mrs. Zarina Usmani, ex-member, UP State Women’s Commission, Mr. Anwar Alam, Mr. Afzal Ahmad Khan and Mr. Muinullah Khan. Mr. Anis Ahmad Khan, Vice President, AIDMM, presided.]
Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians, who constitute more than half of their respective community’s populations in the country, have been among the most marginalized and deprived sections of society. Victims, together with their brethren in the majority community, of the age-old stigma and exclusion of caste, they figure at the bottom of the development scale. And yet, they were ruthlessly and arbitrarily deprived of their Constitutional rights by the Presidential Order of 1950. This order, in violation of the secular promise of the Constitution of the new-born Republic of India, made religion the basis of affirmative action, and robbed Dalit Muslims and Christians of affirmative action such as the reservations in government jobs given to Dalits professing the Hindu faith. Subsequently, this was put in the Constitution as Article 341.
Dalit Christians and Muslims have consistently struggled against this Act, which communalizes an otherwise Secular Constitution, and deprives them of representation in political processes from panchayat to Parliament.
The Congress government headed by Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao had in fact moved a Bill in Parliament granting such rights. However, it seems the UPA Government had succumbed to the pressure of upper caste vested interests and right wing political groups of the Sangh Parivar and has reneged on its own promises for such basic Human rights.
While the Supreme Court has admitted Public Interest writ petitions on the issue, the Government of India has been adopting dilatory tactics before the Court, repeatedly referring the matter to one National Commission after another.
The Government admits that every single Constitutional authority in the country has upheld the legal and moral validity of the demand of the Dalit Christians. But after the Supreme Court was moved, the Government first sent the issue to the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, headed by former Chief Justice of India Mr. Rangnath Misra, to suggest if Dalit and Backward Christians and Muslims could be treated at par with other
with Scheduled Castes for reservations in Government jobs and admission in educational institutions. Justice Misra said the Dalit Christians had a legitimate case for being treated at par with other scheduled castes. The Government then sent the issue the National Commission for
Scheduled Castes, headed by former Union Home Minister Dr Buta Singh, who also ruled the commission had no objection to extending reservation to Dalit Christians and Muslims but the 15 per cent quota for Scheduled Castes should not be disturbed. The issue was then referred to the National Commission for Backward Classes.
We have ample reason to suspect the Government’s intentions. It did not undertake this lengthy process while extending the reservations and other privileges to Sikhs and Buddhist Dalits some years ago. It is only in the case of the Dalit Christian and Dalit Muslim demand that these new regulations have been suddenly discovered.
The Centre for Public Interest Litigation and several others in their Civil writ petitions in the Supreme Court have requested it to declare clause (3) of the Constitution (scheduled castes) order, 1950 as unconstitutional and void as it denied benefits to Dalit Christians and Muslims.
Most political parties, in the United Progressive Alliance which rules at
the Centre, as well as in the Opposition ranks, have supported the cause of the Dalit Christians. These include three major parties – the Communist Party Marxist-led Left Front which rules in West Bengal and Kerala, the Bahujan Samaj Party in power in Uttar Pradesh, and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam which has a Government in Tamil Nadu. The Hindutva Bharatiya Janata Party is the solitary one to continue to oppose. But even its allies, including Bihar chief Minister Nitish Kumar, have extended full support to the Dalit Muslims and Christians.
The long delay in removing the religious bigotry in the law is both illegal and against the proclaimed secular policies of the United Progressive Alliance. The Government need not wait for the Supreme Court to decide the matter, but can announce its own decision in Parliament through appropriate legislation. The sooner it does so, thebetter will it be for its own credibility, and for the cause of freedom of faith and justice in India.
We also call upon the Bahujan Samaj Party government of Ms Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh
to use their tremendous political capital to put pressure on the Union Government to grant full Constitutional rights to Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians in keeping with its own ‘Sarvjan Sukhai Sarjan Hitai’ political ideology.