No reservation needed for Dalit Christians, Muslims: Sangh wing

“The Abrahamic Religions, i.e. Islam and Christianity, declare that there is no caste system in those religions, and hence, there is no practice of untouchability. Thus, a scheduled caste person who converts to Islam or Christianity leaves behind the social stigma and cannot be considered for reservation in the scheduled caste category,” he added.

The conclave was organised in the backdrop of the government setting up a committee under former CJI KG Balakrishnan to examine whether Dalits among Christians and Muslims can be extended the benefit of reservation.

Arguing that the basis for selecting Caste in the Schedule was the social, educational and economic backwardness and the 1931 Census had only considered “untouchables” for this classification, Agarwal said, “Therefore, the reservation for Scheduled Castes is sacrosanct. Including any other caste or race will dilute the Constitutional spirit behind the reservation provisions.”

He said the VSK would prepare a memorandum for submission before the Commission, request for a personal hearing and take all possible steps to place facts before the Commission for a logical and just conclusion. Such conclaves, he said, will now be organised in various parts of the Country to generate more inputs and support for the cause.

Asserting that reservation should continue to be limited only to castes considered untouchables in the past, Agarwal claimed that the OBCs amongst Muslims and Christians already enjoy the benefits of reservations in the respective quota of various states and this system was good enough to take care of any backwardness concerns.

“The other poor Muslims and Christians are entitled to the reservation under the EWS category. They also enjoy the benefit of different schemes for the development of minorities. Their institutions are protected under Article 30 of the Constitution of India. Minorities have also benefited from welfare schemes, including free ration, housing, toilet, gas, electricity, tap water etc,” he said.

The Greate Noida Conclave had been organised in collaboration with the Gautam Buddha University and Hindu Vishva, a fortnightly magazine, to discuss ‘Conversion and Reservation”.

The VSK and GBU had selected 17 topics arising from the terms of reference of the Justice KG Balakrishnan Commission. The organisers gave a call for papers, to which 60 legal and academic experts responded through their articles from across the country.

Narendra Jadhav, Former Member of the Planning Commission and MP of Rajya Sabha, was the chief guest for the inaugural function and Prof. Sanjay Paswan, Former HRD Minister of India, was among the key speakers.

More than 150 persons participated in the Conclave, including former Judges, serving and Former Vice Chancellors, Deans, Professors, Journalists, Advocates, Column writers and other academics.

“The Concluding Session was presided by Padma Shri Milind Kamble of DICCI. Shri Surendra Jain, Jt, General Secretary of VHP and Mr Justice Siva Shankar Rao Bulusu (Retd) were the main speaker of the valedictory session,” the VHP said in a statement.