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SC Christian circles abuzz with hectic activity
CLF steering committee chairman and ex-IAS officer Samuel Anand
SC Christian groups and Associations are gearing up to affectively put forth their points relating to their demands by holding meetings, in the likelihood of the Central government constituted Commission, headed by KG Balakrishnan, retired Chief Justice of India, touring different regions of AP State in October.
Anantapur: SC Christian groups and Associations are gearing up to affectively put forth their points relating to their demands by holding meetings, in the likelihood of the Central government constituted Commission, headed by KG Balakrishnan, retired Chief Justice of India, touring different regions of AP State in October.
The Commission will gather opinions on the demand of SC Christians to retain their SC social status despite embracing Christianity. The contention of the Christian Leaders Federation (CLF) is, when SCs can embrace Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism, why not SCs be allowed to convert to Christianity or Islam.
“This is discrimination purely on religious grounds,” argues CLF steering committee chairman Samuel Anand, retired IAS officer and former Collector of Guntur district, while talking to The Hans India. CLF founder-president Olive Rayi, a socio-political-religious activist and Samuel Anand together spearheading the high-voltage campaign in support of SC Christians and demanding for delinking religion from Scheduled Caste status. They are propagating the right of SCs to believe in the religion of their choice.
They argue that caste is permanent and religion is temporal in nature, as any one can change their religious beliefs any number of times, while caste cannot be changed nor caste identity be deprived for anyone by anyone. The two leaders are touring several districts both in AP and Telangana and putting up a united fight in support of their one point demand.
This campaign is a prelude to the arrival of the Commission, headed by Justice Balakrishnan, to Vijayawada sometime in October.
He will be meeting a cross section of Christian Dalit leaders and also leaders and members of Christian Leaders Federation. The Commission will be touring coastal areas including Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Rayalaseema region to elicit majority opinion on the issue including stake holders in SC communities.
Steering committee chairman Samuel Anand maintained that the 1950 and 1990 presidential orders had given (or retaining) SC status to Sikhs and Buddhists. SCs, who converted to Sikh religion or Buddhism, were retained or given SC status, but denied the same status to those SCs, who changed their religion to Christianity or Islam. This is highly discriminatory on religious grounds.
Oliver Rayi adds that religious beliefs can be
changed but not one’s caste identity which is hereditary and ancestral.
