Tamil Nadu Assembly passes resolution seeking to add Dalit Christians to SC category

“Except for Jains and Buddhists, others who converted are not considered Scheduled Caste, but the Adi Dravidas, historically, remain as so. For this reason, we cannot deny their rights to be in the Schedule Caste category,” said Stalin.

The chief minister also said “They would be socially uplifted if reservation benefits are extended to them in education and employment. Denying them all the benefits merely because they have converted to another religion is not fair. This is our stand.”

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The resolution

Pointing out the efforts made by former chief minister M Karunanidhi, Stalin said that whenever the DMK came to power in the state, it wrote to the Union government regarding this.

“Except reservation, all other benefits and privileges including educational scholarships, that are given to other Dalit communities, are provided to Adi Dravidar Christians in Tamil Nadu,” Stalin said.

He also requested the commission headed by retired Justice Balakrishnan, which was constituted to consider the possibility of granting SC status to converted Christians and Muslims, to tour all the states in the country and record the opinions of state governments on the issue and file a report.

The resolution the chief minister tabled reads: “This august House urges the Government of India to make necessary amendments to the Constitution to extend statutory protection, rights and concessions including reservation as provided to the people belonging to SC under the Indian Constitution, also to the SCs who have converted to Christianity, so as to enable them to avail the benefits of social justice in all aspects.”

All the parties, including the AIADMK, PMK, VCK, Congress, MDMK, CPI, and the CPI(M), welcomed the resolution and it was passed unanimously.

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BJP opposes resolution

BJP MLAs opposed the bill. Vanathi Srinivasan, who spoke on behalf of the BJP, asked what the need was for the resolution now when the Central government had already constituted a committee in this regard and a case in Supreme Court is pending.

She also asked whether the chief minister was accepting that there was untouchability in Christianity and Islam despite conversion.

Speaker M Appavu expunged her remarks and cautioned that there was no need for her to attribute an ulterior motive.

“The chief minister has every right to move the resolution. You may express your views to say whether you accept it or not,” the Speaker said.

The BJP MLAs also staged a walkout from the Assembly.

Later, Vanathi Srinivasan told reporters outside the Assembly that the DMK government had brought this resolution for political reasons.

“The resolution is a mere eyewash as the government appears to be unconcerned over the issues concerning the SCs like the Vengaivayal issue, Panchami land retrieval, and honour killings. Even to this day, the SCs have no common graveyard. So, we walked out opposing the resolution,” she said.

It may be noted that the Andhra Pradesh government passed a similar resolution in March.

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