New Delhi, India - The Ranganath Misra Commission is likely to recommend that religion should be delinked from caste while deciding the Scheduled-Caste status. The Commission report is ready and if its recommendations are accepted, Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims will be eligible for reservation.
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The Commission was to submit its report to the Government on March 26 but has been advised to seek an extension till May 15 to get around the problem of having to deal with recommendations that could be controversial, just ahead of the UP elections.
The five-member Commission was set up on March 15, 2005 to look into the criteria for defining backwardness among minorities.
The report, according to sources, is not an unanimous one but may have far-reaching consequences on the debate whether Muslim and Christian Scheduled Caste groups should have access to the same facilities and privileges as Hindu/Sikh or Buddhist Scheduled Castes.
The Constitution does not go into the religion of deprived caste groups, but a Government order of 1950 and successive amendments have complicated matters for several caste groups that have converted to either Islam or Christianity.
According to the 1950 order, only Hindus were to be considered as part of the Scheduled Caste category, though amendments to this order in 1956 and then in 1990, added Sikhs to the pool and then Buddhists. Now, Muslim, Christian and Jain ‘Scheduled Castes’ are not recognised as beneficiaries and there are several petitions filed by Muslims and Christian groups pending in the Supreme Court contesting this Government order. The next hearing for these petitions is on April 3.
While some groups even in the NDA, such as the Janata Dal (United), have expressed their willingness to go along with the Government in case Muslim and Christian Dalits are recognised as possible beneficiaries, the UPA is not sure of the reactions from traditional Dalit-based parties such as the BSP with which the Congress may wish to forge an alliance after the UP polls.