India’s Attorney General Cites a Non-Existent Commission as Protection for Dalit Christians

ANS – In yet another slap in the face to Dalit Christians across India , the Attorney General has offered a response to a pending case dealing with Scheduled Caste Reservations that is misleading. The reply of the government to the Honorable Supreme Court on August 23, 2005 states that there was a “Commission” constituted for this purpose. After examining government records and contacting different government agencies and commissions that might deal with the issue of Dalit Christians, no such commission has been found. The name of the commission was also not mentioned in the government’s reply. “A complete search for the commission yielded no results,” stated Dr. Joseph D’souza, International President of the Dalit Freedom Network (DFN), “which leads us to believe that the government has once again tried to mislead the Supreme Court regarding Dalit Christian reservation.” Some sources said that the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission, known as the National Commission for Religious & Linguistic Minorities, is the Commission. The terms and references of the commission are too broad that the issue of Dalit Christians is not at all given a point of reference. The mentioned commission was formed through a resolution on October 29, 2004 to submit a report after 6 months. There have not been any reports from this commission. Additionally, a member of the commission was contacted and he pleaded ignorance that this commission has something to do with extending reservation to Dalit-Christians…[Go To Full Story]