TN Govt reservation would not benefit Christians: CMK

Chennai, Oct 27 (UNI) The exclusive seven per cent reservation announced by the Tamil Nadu Government for backward Christians and Muslims would not benefit the Christians, Christian Munnetra Kazhagam (CMK) Founder President S Joseph Fernando said today.

Talking to mediapersons after party's parliamentary committee meeting here, he said in 1985 itself, late Chief Minister M G Ramachandran had included Christians from more than 200 communities in the list of backward classes.

As the Christian community constituted about eight per cent of the state's total population, the 3.5 per cent reservation announced by the DMK Government would not benefit them much, he said.

As a majority of the Christian students secured admissions in educational institutions by merit, the exclusive reservation would not be of much use to them, he said.

On the other hand, the reservation would benefit the Muslim minorities as there were only two categories of Muslims, in the list of backward classes.

The DMK Government would do a great service to the Christians, if it prevailed upon the Congress-led UPA Government at the centre to allow the Dalit Christians to get the benefits, enjoyed by Dalits.

The DMK had promised to include the Dalit Christians in the list of Most Backward Classes after coming to power, but it failed to keep up its words, he said.

Mr Fernando alleged that ever since the DMK came to power in May last, there were series of attacks against Christian Institutions in the state and demanded a CBI probe into these incidents.

He said after a priest was murdered at St Thomas Mount, Christians wanted to take out a rally to protest against the incident, but they were denied permission by the police.

At Sathuvacheri in Vellore district, an idol of Jesus Christ was found desecrated with human blood and a Cross was desecrated with a garland of footwear at Thiruvannamalai, but no action was taken against the culprits, he said.

General Secretary Alphonse Moses condemned the DMK Government for insisting that a special permission has to be obtained from the District Collector to build churches in Kanniyakumari district.

He said the party would celebrate its Silver jubilee celebration in December in Kanniyakumari by distributing free dhoties and sarees to 1000 poor people.

It was decided to invite former Chief Minister and AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa for the valedictory function to be held here in August next.

UNI