December 13, 2013 - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh apologized to Church leaders
for the police beating of protesters, among whom were priests and nuns, during a peaceful
march to the Indian parliament in New Delhi on Wednesdsay advocating for rights for
low-caste Christians. Singh apologized on Thursady when a 10-member delegation, led
by Archbishop Anil Couto of Delhi, called on him to press for the Christian demand
for end to discrimination against Christian dalits, or members of the low castes.
Archbishop Couto was among six Catholic bishops and about a dozen of different denominations
detained with 400 protesters during the march the previous day. Hundreds of the protesters
from across India broke through police barricades and marched to Parliament shouting
"We want justice." In 1950 the Indian government established a quota system in
education and government jobs as a type of affirmative action for Hindu dalits. Though
these statutory privileges were later extended to Sikh dalits in 1956 and Buddhist
dalits in 1990, the repeated requests of the Christian dalits - who account for two-thirds
of 27 million Christians in India - have gone unanswered. During the Dec. 11 march,
police with batons charged and beat up several protesters. Undeterred, the protesters,
including Catholic priests in cassocks, knelt on the road with crosses in hand, and
a police truck mounted with water cannons sprayed them with muddy water several times.
Church leaders courted arrest and were released. "We are not going to tolerate this
injustice (to the dalits) any longer, said Father Devasagayraj Zakarias, secretary
of the Dalit Commission of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India. "We have made
our stand clear, and the prime minister has promised to try to build consensus on
our demand." The priest said Catholic leaders were happy that the prime minister
apologized. "Even nuns were beaten up," said the dalit priest, who had his cassock
muddied by spray from the water cannons. (Source: CNS)