New Delhi: The Tamil Nadu Assembly adopted a resolution on Wednesday, April 19, urging the Union government to extend statutory protection, rights, and concessions, including reservation, to Scheduled Caste members who have converted to Christianity.
After moving the resolution, chief minister M.K. Stalin said it is unfair to deny Dalit Christians the benefits of reservations enjoyed by the other members of the same community only because of their conversion to Christianity.
“While humans have the right to follow the religion of their choice, they cannot do it in the case of caste. Caste is not just about the identity of two different persons. On the other hand, it treats one as higher and the other as lower. It is not horizontal, but vertical. The philosophy of social justice is to use the same casteism, a tool of oppression, to provide reservation and uplift the victims of oppression. It is the objective of the ‘Dravidian Model Government’ to follow in all aspects,” The Hindu quoted Stalin as saying after moving the resolution before the Assembly.
The four MLAs of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) walked out of the House, opposing the resolution. Speaker M. Appavu expunged the remarks made by BJP MLA, Vanathi Srinivasan, on the issue. According to the Times of India, Srinivasan called the resolution by Stalin’s government “a diversionary tactic”, questioning the rationale behind bringing out a such resolution at a time when the Union government, led by her party, had constituted a committee to examine the need to extend quota to Dalit Christians.
Meanwhile, Stalin questioned the constitutional position of not extending reservations to Dalits who convert to Christianity and Islam. As per the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order of 1950, no person belonging to a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism can be deemed Scheduled Caste and hence cannot avail reservation.
“When they remain as the Scheduled Castes historically, it is but fair to extend them the benefits. They can get education and employment only through reservation…,” Stalin argued, adding that Adi Dravidars continued to face caste atrocities even after conversion to Christianity. Adi Dravidars are categorised as a Dalit community in Tamil Nadu.
Stalin recalled that former chief minister M. Karunanidhi had written to the then prime ministers in 1996, 2006, and 2011 requesting for reservations to be extended to Dalit Christians.
He also said that his government had made rules to extend all benefits, except reservation, available for Dalits, to Adi Dravidards who accepted Christianity. The chief minister said it was part of his party’s, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s, election manifesto.
Meanwhile, the Union government has made it clear, through multiple affidavits filed before the Supreme Court, that it is not willing to extend quota to Dalit Christians and Muslims. In November 2022, it had claimed alleged “foreign” contributions as justification for keeping Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians out of the Scheduled Castes list.
Similarly, in an affidavit filed before the top court in December 2022, it had made it clear that it was not willing to consider the recommendations of the 2007 Justice Ranganath Misra Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, which suggested that reservations benefits be extended to Dalits who accepted Christianity and Islam.
The government affidavit had called the 2007 commission’s report “flawed”, as it was composed within the “four walls of a room”. The Modi government, however, had constituted in October 2022 Justice K.G. Balakrishnan Commission to consider the pleas of Dalits Christians and Muslims to be included in reservation quotas. The time period granted to the Justice Balakrishnan Commission is two years.
Recently, on April 13, when the issue came before the top court, the Union government had requested the court to delay the hearing until the latest commission’s report is ready. However, the court dismissed the government’s plea. “Tomorrow there will be a different political dispensation which may say that new report is not acceptable. How many committees would be appointed?” the court had slammed the government.
Stating that the matter has been pending for almost 20 years, the three-member bench of the apex court had observed, “Social stigma and religious stigma are different things. Social stigma may continue even after conversion. We cannot shut our eyes when we are considering all these constitutional matters.”