Hyderabad, October 25: Congress MP Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take steps to provide reservation to Dalit Christians as they are not able to get the quota facility after they converted to Christianity from Hinduism.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Jagan said Dalit Christians are feeling discriminated as Dalit Buddhists and Dalit Sikhs are able to avail of the reservation facility.
Though the Constitution provides religious freedom to all its citizens, the condition that any SC person would lose his right to reservation if he converted from Hinduism is against the spirit of Constitution, he said.
The Minority Commission in 1980 and the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission have stressed the need to do justice to Dalit Christians, he said.
Stating that he had already represented the matter to UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi earlier, Jagan appealed to the Prime Minister to take steps for addressing the long-pending demand of the Dalit Christians.
Meanwhile, Jagan, who has been touring in Nellore district as part of his ongoing ‘Odarpu yatra’, took rest for the second day today because of inflammation in the shoulder.
The inflammation occurred due to strain on the shoulder for the past several weeks and the doctors advised him to take rest for two days.
Jagan is likely to resume his yatra from tomorrow after the two-day break, sources said.
–Agencies