Christians demand that Mishra report be implemented forthwith

Now that the Indian Government has tabled the Ranganath Mishra Commission report, church groups demand that its recommendations be implemented forthwith.

At a Christmas function attended by politicians and church leaders on Friday, the National Council of Churches (NCCI), Catholic Bishops' Conference (CBCI) and the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), prayed that justice would be meted out to Dalit Christians as the Lok Sabha deliberates the report.

MP JD Seelam and Prof. PJ Kurian promised that the government - who they said was currently studying the report - would soon address the issue.

The report is prepared by the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities (NCLRM) headed by former chief justice Ranganath Mishra.

The All India Christian Council (aicc) and the Union of Dalit Christian Associations India had earlier this week formed a delegation to meet Law Minister Veerappa Moily and other political leaders urging the recommendations of the NCLRM report be implemented.

Welcoming the report, aicc General Secretary John Dayal, said, "Justice has been done by the Mishra commission. It is now for the Government to do justice."

In a memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister, the delegation called for the report to be placed before the parliament and also that govt. "inform the Supreme Court of its decision on the report."

Additionally, they demanded that the govt. through legislative action or by a Presidential Ordinance entirely scrap the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950.

"Christians and Muslims of Dalit Origin have agitated now for 59 years urging the Government not to discriminate against them on grounds of their religion, but to once again extend to them the political, economic and development privileges accorded all Dalits by the Constitution of India when it was signed into law on 26th January 1950," they informed.

"These rights were taken away brutally by the Presidential Order of 1950 which strengthened the right wing fundamentalist religious lobby and which continues to constitute a slur on the Secular foundations of the Indian Nation."

The Mishra Commission has defined religious and linguistic minorities as backward classes and recommended 15 percent reservation for all minorities in jobs, education and welfare schemes.

It urged the delinking of Scheduled Caste status from religion and recommends extending it to all Dalits irrespective of caste or faith.

Also noting that socio-economic backwardness emanates from educational backwardness, the Commission has recommended that at least 15 per cent of the seats in all non-minority educational institutions be earmarked by law for minorities.

There are about 20 million Dalit Christians whose socio-economic and educational rights have been dismantled by para 3 of the Presidential Order 1950. All the political parties except the BJP have supported the deletion of the 'unjust' para.