Church instigating Dalit Christians against Modi Government: PCLM
New Delhi, Mar 11: With the announcement for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Church in India got busied in instigating the Dalit Christians against the Narendra Modi government. This was alleged by the Poor Christian Liberation Movement (PCLM) Chairman R L Francis.
Accusing the Church leadership of misleading and instigating the converted Dalits against Modi government, PCLM Chairman R L Francis said in a press release that the Church leaders were misleading the Dalit Christians in the name of getting them included in the Scheduled Caste category.
Francis said that the Church leadership talks of development of Dalit Christians, connecting them with their Hindu counterparts and hinting at their common issues and problems. It is true that these Dalits who embraced Christianity revolting against the caste system and neglect by the Hindu society. But the larger truth is they had no relations with those non-Christian dalits. There are no similarities in their festivals, customs, marriages, way of worship etc. In spite of this the Church leaders want them to connect with the Hindu Dalits, he alleged.
Francis further alleged that the Sunday Mass in churches are used to instigate the Dalit Christians against the BJP and Narendra Modi government. The fact is that the Church has been demanding the inclusion of Christian Dalits into the Scheduled Caste category since 1970s and the Congress only eyed their solid vote banks by giving them false assurances.
Francis said that there are over 60 percent Dalit Christians who had embraced Christianity revolting against the prevalent caste system in the Hindu society.
The Catholic Church in its report titled “Policy of Dalit empowerment in the Catholic Church in India” released in 2016 accepted to the presence of untoruchability and discrimination among the converted Dalits on a large scale and there was a need to end this discrimination forthwith.
The Dalit Christians who had hoped that after this report the Catholic and Protestant Church would take steps for their emancipation, uplift and empowerment but they were disappointed as nothing of this happened except that they found the church busy in getting them included among the Hindu Dalits which was against the “Canon Law’ and therefore not acceptable.
Francis alleged that the church leaders and various NGOs associated with them are taking disadvantage of this issue and instigating the Dalit Christians in Delhi and other parts of the country against the present BJP government and particularly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi.