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Reservation for Christians Sir, Mr Waris Gill, President, Christian Movement for Jammu and Kashmir Unit is of the opinion that the President of India in terms of Article 331 of the Constitution of India should nominate two members of the Christian Community for the Lok Sabha since the population of the Anglo-Indian Community in India has dwindled. (Refer ''Christian Movement for reservation in Lok Sabha''- Daily Excelsior dated October 12). I do not agree with the learned President of the Movement. There is a history behind as to what made the Founding Fathers of the Constitution of India to make for such a provision. Anglo-Indian Community is a community by itself. However, I do not want to go into the details here. I wish to make it abundantly clear to my learned friend that Articles 330, 341 and 342 of the constitution of India speak in very lucid terms that 'there shall be no reservation of seats for any community other than the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes'. Besides, we have seen that there have been many elected members from the Christian Community in the Lok Sabha and they never raised an eye brow whenever the interest of the Christian Community were jeopardised in any manner. They always tried to keep their comfy and comfortable berths in the corridors of power intact. Had this not been so then Clause 2 of the Presidential Order 1950 should have long been amended to benefit the class of Dalit Converts to Christianity. Despite the fact that our independence has crossed the 52 year mark, Dalit Christians are still experiencing a creeping sense of helplessness, despair and slavery. Poverty still prevails among them and even today they are denied of justice, freedom and equality. It is, not therefore, for our leaders of the community to offer self-serving demands like the one under reference but to critically analyse and rectify the inadequacies of different movements creatively for the upliftment of the Dalit Christians in order to fulfill its mission. The Christian Movement, Jammu and Kashmir Unit should take stock of the fact as to what has been the contribution of all those members from the Christian Community who have been nominated to the JK State Legislative Council so far. They have not been able to say so far that our community in the state services and the professional backwardness deserve to have reservations in the state services and the professional colleges. As a student of Political Science I can safely say that the Constitution of India does not define minorities but recognises the existence of minorities and provides them with, apart from the Fundamental Rights, a special package of religious, educational and cultural rights (Articles 25-30); it has also created constitutional machinery for safe-guarding and implementing these rights. The three categories of minorities which can claim protection are minorities based on language, religion, and culture (Articles 29-30). Accordingly: ''Any section of citizens, being small in number in a definite area, in respect of religion, language or on any other ground, seeking equal or preferential treatment either to maintain its identity or to be assimilated with the majority is a minority. (G.Oommen, ''Minority Conciousness of Christians in Post-Independent India: A Historical Percepective''-Page 10). Our demand at the moment should be enforcement of Fundamental Rights which guarantee and safeguard religious freedom, including the right to propagate, together with their other legitimate rights. Let we ask ourselves a most pertinent question: We contribute 48 percent to the education field in the country, why is it so that our community is by and large illiterate? Who is responsible for it? What is our Church doing in this regard? Yours etc... |
