Million post cards to press dalit cause

Million post cards to press dalit cause:The petition was filed eight years ago in Supreme Court challenging validity of the amendment of the Constitution in 1950.

By Bijay Kumar Minj
New Delhi:  Catholics and Protestents have joined to launch a campaign to protest the continuing discrimination against Dalit Christians in the country by posting one million post cards to heads of government.

“We are demanding a concrete answer from the government, we can no longer wait,” Bishop Anthonisamy Neethinathan of Chinglepet, chairperson of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India's office for Scheduled Caste and Backward Classes told ucanews.com.

Let the government give its reply to the Supreme Court where a case is pending. We will chalk out our action plan after hearing yes or no from the government, the prelate said.

The petition was filed eight years ago in Supreme Court challenging validity of a Constitution amendment in 1950. The amendment said “no person who professes a religion different from Hinduism shall be deemed to be a member of the Scheduled Caste.

Bishop Anthonisamy who addressed the media people at CBCI center Feb. 18 said the last hearing was in Jan 11 this year and the next will be in March 4.

To press our demand, CBCI along with National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) and National Council for Dalit Christians (NCDC) has launched the campaign, Father Devasagayaraj said.

Every day at least 100 post cards each will be posted to Sonia Gandhi, President of Congress Party and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh until we reach the target of one million post card, Devasagayaraj, secretary of the office of CBCI office that looks after the interests of dalits said.

Alwan Masih, Church of north India (CNI) General Secretary said he is "hopeful that justice will be done for dalit Christians.”

However, he said if government (Congress) is not doing its duty the result will reflect in the coming general election.

For more than six decades, Christian and Muslim are excluded from government benefits meant for the social betterment of dalits on the ground that their religions reject casteism.