NEW DELHI: The National Coordination Committee for SC Christians said their struggle to get Dalit Christians included in the list of Scheduled Caste is neither religious nor political. Addressing a press conference here Convener of the committee, Bishop Vincent M. Concessao said the allegations being leveled against Mother “Teresa for supporting the Dalit Christians” cause was unjustified.
“The people who have raised these ‘allegations do not seem to understand that the struggle of the SC Christians is neither religious nor political but one for human dignity and rights,”
He said the discrimination against the Dalit Christians arose from Para 3 of the Presidential Order, Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950, which denied reservation facilities to those practicing other than Hindutva. “The order was amended to include the Sikhs in 1956s a consequence of their demands and again in 1990 to include the Neo Buddhists,” the Bishop said. “The same rationale that ‘was applied to these two amendments must be used in the case of the SC Christians,” he added.
The Bishop informed, “The struggle of the Dalit Christians has been carrying on for the last 45 years through presentation of memorandums and protests.” “Mother Teresa spoke for them only in the 45th year,” he added. On the hue and cry that had been raised over Mother Teresa’s support to the Dalit Christians, the Bishop said that it was because we are touching the system for greater equality.
On BJP’s stance on the issue, he said, “It is a test for them to prove whether they are really shifting from Hindutva to social justice and secularism,”
Earlier in the morning, around 150 workers of the Indra parshad Vishva Hindu Parishad and Hindu Manch (Delhi) led by East Delhi BJP MP B.L. Sharma ‘Prem’ staged a demonstration here demanding that the Bharat Ratna awarded to Mother Teresa should be taken back.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 1, 1995
