Hyderabad, August 26: The State Legislative Assembly today adopted a resolution requesting the Central Government to extend Scheduled Caste status to SCs who embraced Christianity and Islam.
Introducing the resolution, Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy read it out: “This Houses resolves to request the Centre to amend the Constitution for extending SC status to Dalit Christians so that they can enjoy the same equal political rights and socio-economic and educational benefits as all other Scheduled Castes do.’’ Except the BJP and the Lok Satta Party, all parties supported the resolution.
The chief minister said that the Centre was inclined to grant SC status to Dalit Christians but had not taken a final decision. When MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi wanted SC status to Dalit Muslims, the Chief minister agreed to include the demand in the resolution.
Leader of the Opposition and TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu welcomed the resolution and said that his party would fully cooperate with the government in its efforts to grant SC status to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims. He recalled that TDP’s manifesto contained the promise to include Dalit Christians in the SC category.
PRP floor leader Chiranjeevi said that his party had also promised SC status to Dalit Christians. CPI member K Sambasiva Rao wanted the government to hike the SC reservation suitably as the number of SCs would increase once Dalit Christians came to be treated as SCs.
The chief minister, however, said that the SC population would increase from 17 per cent to 19 per cent and there would be no problem of reservation.
BJP member G Kishan Reddy said that the resolution was nothing but an encouragement to foreign missionaries which are resorting to proselytisation of SCs offering them money and other inducements. By introducing the resolution the government was setting a bad precedent, he alleged. Terming the chief minister’s move a `political game’, Kishan Reddy wanted a halt to `votebank politics’. Once Dalit Christians were included in the SC category, religious conversions would increase and it would ruin the Indian culture. Opposing the resolution, BJP members stated a walkout.
Lok Satta Party’s Jayaprakash Narayan said that the resolution would not stand legal scrutiny. The Supreme Court had, in an earlier case, clearly stated that converted Christians could not claim SC status.
He wanted the government to increase reservation under the BC-C quota, now being given to Dalit Christians. It was the only way to uplift Dalit Christians, he suggested.
If the resolution was adopted as it was, it would stir a political unrest in the country as in the case of Ram Janmabhoomi, he cautioned.
Minister D Manikya Varaprasad said it was up to Parliament to amend the Constitution and the Assembly could only pass resolution.
–Agencies—