Addressing the demonstrators, Mr. R.L. Francis,
National President of Poor Christian Liberation Movement said that
instead of offering compensation to the Dalit Christians, the Church
was indulging in the conspiracy to include them in the Scheduled Caste
list, which was not acceptable to Dalit Christians. It was sixty years
ago that Dalits had given up their rights available to them as
Scheduled Castes and accepted Christianity just to improve the quality
of their life and better living standards. But the Church leadership
was trying to put them back to square one, right from where they
started sixty years ago.
Poor Christian
Liberation Movement has been protesting and waging a struggle against
‘discrimination with Converted Dalit Christians’, who form a formidable
70% of the Christian population in India. This majority has been
pleading with the 30% powerful minority Non-Dalit Christians to be
treated at par as per doctrine of Christianity. But the Church
leadership as well as the elite Christians have been demanding that
Dalit Christians be included in the list of Scheduled Castes. They have
the Catholic Bishop Conference of India, and other formidable Church
Bodies and structures to back them up.
The
protestors also submitted a Memorandum to Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime
Minister of India, enlisiting various demands of Dalit Christians from
the Church leadership as well as the Government of India to set up a
Dalit Christian Finance & Development Board for the welfare of more
than 2 crore Dalit Christians of India.
R.
L. Francis, National President of PCLM wished to share the agony of
millions of Converted Christians, namely the spiritually humiliating
experience of “Rape of Faith” better explained as “Astha ka Balatkar”.
In U.S.A. and other countries Catholic Church authorities had shelled
out millions of Dollars to pay as compensation for the sexual
perversion of a few Catholic priests. Isn’t the collective sin of 30%
Non-Dalit Christians “Astha ka Balatkar” sufficient reason / cause for
Indian Church
‘Compensation’ to the deserving Dalit Christian Organisations /
Movements?