16-02-2021 The Asian Independent

22 16-02-2021 to 28-02-2021 NEWS
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
Dalit Christians stage protest
march in southern INDIA
Dalit Christians in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu held a protest march in
Kumbakonam Diocese against the discrimination faced by Dalits.
By Bijay Kumar Minj, New Delhi
The protesters from eight Dalit
Christian groups marched on Feb. 6 to
submit a memorandum to the bishop
and other diocesan officials stating their
demand for a Dalit bishop in the diocese.
“Bishop Antonysamy Francis of
Kumbakonam will be retiring from his
post as he will reach the canonical
retirement age of 75 in December, so we
wanted to intensify our demand for a
bishop of Dalit origin in this diocese,”
Kudanthai Arasan, founder and president
of Viduthalai Tamil Puligal Katchi,
told UCA News.
“We have faced discrimination within
the Church as well as in civil society
for the past several decades, not only in
Tamil Nadu but also in some other
states and our demand remains the same
— to treat Dalit Christians equally.”
Arasan said Kumbakonam Diocese
was formed on Sept. 1, 1899, but even
after 121 years no initiative was taken
by the former three bishops and the
present bishop to appoint a Dalit as
bishop in any diocese in Tamil Nadu.
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There are more than 2 million
Christians in the diocese and Dalit
Catholics account for 65 percent, he
said.
Arasan said that among 135 priests in
the diocese, 29 qualified priests are
from a Dalit background. Such caste
discrimination is against canon law, section
378.1, he said.
Franklin Caesar Thomas, coordinator
of the National Council of Dalit
Christians, told UCA News that over the
past 14 years not one of the 10 priests
elected was Dalit.
“The basic reason for all these discriminatory
practices is caste and an
untouchability mindset,” said Thomas, a
Supreme Court lawyer.
The struggle of Dalit Christians and
Muslims seeking the status of scheduled
caste started after a 1950 presidential
order removed the privileges given to
scheduled caste converts who were not
Hindus.
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While such privileges were restored
to Sikhs (1956) and to Buddhists
(1990), Christians and Muslims have
not been granted them and there seems
to be little hope for them.
Different commissions appointed by
the government have recommended that
Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims
should be included in the scheduled
caste list.
Dalits, or untouchables, are the lowest
caste within Hindu society. Huge
numbers of Dalits have converted to
Christianity and Islam over the decades,
though the religions offer limited protection
from societal prejudice.
The word Dalit means “trampled
upon” in Sanskrit and refers to all
groups once considered untouchable
and outside the four-tier Hindu caste
system. Government data shows 201
million of India’s 1.2 billion people
belong to this marginalized community.
Some 60 percent of India’s 25 million
Christians are of Dalit or tribal origin.
Courtesy : UCA News
Nodeep Kaur’s ‘illegal confinement’: Punjab
and Haryana HC take suo motu cognisance
The court directed the matter of the arrest of the Dalit activist to be listed in the urgent list and issued notice of motion to the State
Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi of the
Punjab and Haryana High Court took
suo motu cognisance of the alleged
‘illegal confinement’ of the 24-yearold
labour activist Nodeep Kaur on
February 12.
The order read: “Complaints dated
06.02.2021 (February 6) and
08.02.2021 (February 8) have been
received through e-mail regarding illegal
confinement of Nodeep Kaur,
Dalit Labour Activist by the Haryana
Police and under the orders of Hon’ble
Mr. Justice Jaswant Singh have been
treated as Criminal Writ Petition and
ordered to be listed on judicial side”.
Issuing “notice of motion to the
State of Haryana”, the Single-judge
Bench of the Punjab and Haryana
High Court listed the matter for hearing
on February 24, 2021. The State of
Haryana is expected to file a reply/status
report till then.
On January 12, 2021, the Haryana
Police reached her tent and arrested
Nodeep Kaur at Singhu Border, where
she was agitating with other farmers
against the laws. On February 2, Kaur
who has been lodged in Karnal Jail,
was denied bail by Sessions Court,
Sonipat, Haryana as it held that the
charges against her were serious. Her
family has also claimed that she is
being tortured and sexually assaulted
in custody.
She has been charged under sections
148 (rioting), 149 (unlawful
assembly), 332 (causing hurt to deter
public servant from his duty), 353
(assault on public servant), 186
(Obstructing public servant), 384
(extortion), 379-B (snatching and use
of force), and 307 (attempt to murder)
of the Indian Penal Code.
SabrangIndia has been closely
monitoring the matter. Previously,
Nodeep’s sister Rajveer had told us,
“She was beaten by male police officers,
she was hit on the back, on her
private parts. She was arrested on
January 12, and we reached the police
station [late that night] but were told
she had been sent to Karnal. There, the
next day, I found out that she had been
tortured, they did not even give her the
medicines we had handed over. The
SHO wanted to show her as a gang
leader, she is just 23 years old, has
completed her class 12 and was planning
to apply to the Delhi university as
an undergraduate. She is being framed
and we will fight that.”
Nodeep recently turned 24, spending
her birthday behind bars.
CJP had also started an online petition
on February 5 addressed to the
Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief
Justice Ravi Shankar Jha, seeking her
immediate release and dropping of all
charges. Nodeep Kaur had been sitting
on a peaceful protest at Singhu with a
group of factory workers from Kundli
Industrial Area, in solidarity with the
dissenting farmers. The workers have
also been facing similar problems like
the farmers, and have alleged they
have been exploited by employers,
their wages withheld, and jobs taken
away. This has increased since they
began to support the farmers movement.
The detention and the alleged torture
of Kaur sparked social media
debate and uproar and gained attention
after Meena Harris, the niece of
United States Vice President Kamala
Harris, tweeted about her release.
Significantly, Justice Arun Kumar
Tyagi also directed the matter to be
shown on the “urgent list”.
Courtesy : Sabrang