Rights of SC, ST Reservations for Hindus only as per Constitutional Spirit: VHP

VHP Press Statement

Bangaluru || 16 October 2022: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad reiterates that scheduled castes are the persons who have historically been deprived on the basis of their castes; while the Abrahamic religions claim to have no caste distinction amongst them and therefore SC reservation cannot be extended to them. For this purpose, VHP shall actively participate in the consultation process before the said Commission to assist it in arriving at the appropriate findings.

In 1950, the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order was issued making it clear that only Hindu Scheduled Castes would get reservation facilities. Despite this, Christian missionaries and Islamic organizations have been making constant efforts for their irrational demands to extend this facility to converted SCs.

We wouldn’t allow snatching the constitutional rights of SCs, said Alok Kumar, the central working president of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). He added that the converted STs should also not be allowed to continue the rights of a reservation guaranteed under the law to STs.

While addressing a press conference in Bangaluru today he said that Dr. Ambedkar and many Prime Ministers, including Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, had not acceded to the demand to extend benefits to converted SCs. Shri Rajiv Gandhi, Deve Gowda, and Manmohan Singh tried to accept this demand, but they had to back down due to the nationwide protests. The Sachar Committee in 2005 and the Ranganath Committee in 2009 had made some recommendations in this regard, but due to their self-contradictions and wrong methodologies, their advice could not be implemented.

Christian missionaries and Muslim leadership while claiming social equality in their religions and in the same breath raising this demand with great vigor is evidently self-contradictory.

The judiciary has also rejected their demand every time as illogical and unconstitutional. In the case of “Soosai Etc Vs Union Of India And Others” on 30th September 1985, the Hon’ble Supreme Court had clearly directed that the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, and the amendments made to it were constitutional and this reservation could be given to none else other than Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist Scheduled Castes. In the cases of R.C. Poudyal; Somnath Poudyal; Nandu Thapa; Roop Raj Rai, etc., these provisions of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 were considered appropriate and just, he said.

Due to the potential conversion surge and deluge, the peril of demographic alteration in many areas of Bharat will take a dire form. The consequences of demographic change hostile and ill-disposed to national interest are already evident in many districts of Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Bengal, Northeast, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, etc. In those pockets, not only has religious intolerance increased but also India’s identity and worldview, and paradigm of ‘Sarv-Panth Samaadar Bhaav’ (‘mutual respect and harmony among all schools of religion’) has been diluted.

The rights of the Scheduled cast communities of Bharat (India) can’t be allowed to be snatched away by the converts. Backed by their money power, political influence, and international support, they will lodge themselves in all areas of reservation and all those members of the scheduled caste communities for whom the provisions of reservations were made will be deprived of the facilities.

Vishva Hindu Parishad would undertake a widespread public awareness campaign across the country to expose the conspiracies of providing reservations to the Scheduled Castes.