Million post cards to press dalit cause

February 19, 2013: Catholics and Protestants have joined to launch a campaign to protest the continuing discrimination against Dalit Christians in India by posting one million post cards to heads of government.

“We are demanding a concrete answer from the government, we can no longer wait,” said Bishop Neethinathan Anthonisamy of Chinglepet, chairperson of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India's office for Scheduled Caste and Backward Classes. He was addressing media persons on Monday at CBCI.

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 petiton was filed eight years ago in Supreme Court challening validity of the amendment of the Constitution 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.
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.

Bishop Anthonisamy said the last hearing was in Jan 11 this year and the next will be in March 4.

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.