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Extract from Indian Currents:
The Delhi government's recent move to remove churches from the list of places of worship because wine is offered there, is not an isolated case of hurting the sentiments of the Christian community. In the last few months, there seems to be a systematic execution of a plan by. the Sangh Parivar to harass and intimidate the Christian community who number 23 million in India, barely 2.6 per cent of the population. Organisations like the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India and All-India Catholic Union which have compiled statistics of the attacks have found a sharp rise in the figures in the last five years. According to data collected by the CBCI regarding killing of priests and rape of nuns, only six such incidents took place between 1978-83, but there have been 17 such cases in the last five years. However, these are instances of extreme violence against the clergy According to All-India Catholic Union national secretary John Dayal, the attacks on Christians have been launched on three different fronts.
Direct violence against the clergy - the murder of two priests in Bihar, shooting of Father N.V. Jose in Manipur, the murder of nuns in Assam and MP, attack on Brother Tirkey on May 15, 1998 in Ranchi, the attack on pastor Jakhya Digal in Phulbani, Orissa. Attacks on evangelists and disruption of prayer meetings. There has been a steep rise in this category particularly since the BJP came to power.
Pressure on Christian institutions including schools, colleges, hospitals and churches from municipal authorities regarding land permits and charges of encroachment. A study of the recent instances of violence indicate a frightening similarity in the attacks. The highest number of attacks has been in Gujarat where the VHP has a wide-spread network and where BJP's growth was built on the VHP's base. The attacks have taken place with dizzying frequency. On March 2 this year, a meeting in Padra village of Baroda, attended by local and foreign missionaries was attacked with the missionaries violently manhandled. On March 4, a prayer meeting and healing session organised by the Pentecostal Church at the Polo Grounds in Baroda was violently disrupted. It was the first day of a scheduled four-day long Ishu Mahotsav (Jesus Celebration). Over 200,activists of VHP and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad broke mikes, set the stage on fire and beat up those who were on stage. The four-day meeting had to be abandoned. On April 15, residents of Naroda village, led by their deputy sarpanch, demolished a Roman Catholic church around 25 km from Ahmedabad on the grounds that it was allegedly being built without permission from the civic authorities though it stood on land brought by the Church about five years ago. The St Mary's School in Ahmedabad was vandalised by Bajrang Dal members on May 28. Frenzied youth were in the midst of a campaign against Coke and Pepsi and shouted slogans in the school against institutions 'spreading foreign culture.'
In Maharashtra too, the Shiv Sena and RSS have stepped up attacks on Christians. Early,this year, activists of an RSS outfit, Jankalyan Samiti, attacked a voluntary organisation called Shruti run by the Catholic Health Association of India at Nandugarh in Latur district. They pelted Sister Marlene and Father Jeevendra Jadhav with stones and beat them up, accusing them of converting village children to Christianity.
On May 11, 1998, Shiv Sainiks barged into a meeting being conducted at the MMM High School in Ambarnath. They attacked the priest, Father Octavio Anthony Nevis, with iron bars, broke an amplifier, speaker and tubelights, and created chaos by throwing crackers. The local Shiv Sena boss later justified the attack claiming the meetings were aimed at proselytisation. The latest attack in the State took place in the .Mumbai suburb of Malad on June 16, 1998. A chapel of the St Savariyar Church under the patronage of the famous century old Orlem Church was razed to the ground. The church was built 10 yearsago and renovated recently. On June 16, 1998 without any notification, the P-North ward of the Bombay Municipal Corporation razed the entire chapel. In response to a complaint by the All India Catholic Union following initial attacks in Gujarat and Maharashtra, the National Human Rights Commission on March 26, 1998 had directed the police in the two States to take 'expeditious action' against the people who attacked Christians in Baroda and Latur. But continuing attacks show that this directive has had no effect.
Apart from these States, similar attacks have been made in Punjab, UP and Rajasthan. in Punjab, a prayer meeting was disrupted in Ludhiana on October 25, 1997 by VHP activists and six young Christians were beaten up. On March 31, 1998, a group of youth ransacked a Christian congregation near Grover Colony in Jalandhar - repeating the by now standard routine: smashing tube lights, breaking.furniture, setting the dais on fire, manhandling the organisers, and forcing people to leave.
In Rajasthan, the campaign has been more systematic. The target has been small Christian institutions and activities in tribal dominated districts of Udaipur and Banswara. VHP leaflets accusing them of spreading their faith and being 'foreigners' have been distributed in the villages. In late 1997, they presented a memorandum to the district magistrate demanding an end to all activities of Christians. In Banswara district, 12 years after a plot of land was purchased by a tribal priest, it was forcibly occupied by local youth.
In Uttar Pradesh. on March 16, 1998. Bajrang Dal activists attcked a meeting in Kanpur. A three-day meeting was to be held from March 16 to 18 at Maswanpur under the aegis of Assembly of Believers in India. On March 16, well before the meeting began, Bajrang Dal men descended on the place, threw stones, beat up the organisers, sprinkled kerosene and set the stage on fire. The meeting had to be abandoned even though prior permission had been secured and the police informed.
The above instances show a definite pattern, some of the salient features of which are: · Attacks on small, defenceless and isolated Christian groups in States where they are an insignificant minoritv. The VHP has so far not dared to attack the Community in Kerala or Goa where they are in larger numbers. · Accusing all Christian institutions of carrying out conversions; of being alien and foreign and force disputes over land. · Use of the above as pretext to carry out violent attacks. · The tacit and sometimes active connivance of State machinery.
It is clear the attacks are not spontaneous outbursts but part of a systematic programme. The saffron..brigade's attack on the Christian Community stems from the essence of Hindutva which sees India as the land of a monolithic 'Hindu' community in which members of other faiths are 'alien'. For RSS, the principal enemies of the 'Hindu rashtra' are Muslims and Christians (followed by Communists) because they are not 'rooted' in the Indian soil.
The VHP, Bajrang Dal, RSS and BJP activists are only storm-troopers of an ideology that is shared by the likes, of L. K. Advani and Atal Behari Vajpayee. The attacks on the Christian Community is a chilling application of what the former RSS chief and its premier ideologue, M.S. Golwalkar, exhorted decades ago. In his tract, We or Our Nationhood Defined, published in 1939, Golwalkar wrote:
"In Hindustan exists and must needs exist the ancient Hindu nation and nought else but the Hindu Nation. All those not belonging to the national, (i.e., Hindu) race, religion, culture and language naturally fall out of the pail of real ‘national' life... "There are only two courses open to foreign elements, either to merge themselves in the national race and adopt its culture, or to live at its mercy so long as the national race may allow them to do so and to quit the country at the sweet will of the national race... From this standpoint, sanctioned by the experience of shrewd old nations, the foreign races in Hindustan must either adopt Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture, and must lose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment - not even citizen's rights. We are an old nation; let us deal, as old nations ought to and do deal, with the foreign races who have chosen to live in our country."
From time to time, BJP leadership has, tried to disassociate itself from this tract which remains, for all purposes, the RSS bible. But the tenor and manner of the attacks from Banswara to Baroda, from Latur to Ludhiana show how deeply ingrained is Golwalkar's ideology in the minds of their young cadres even at the end of the 20th century.
The Hindutva ideology is based on lies and distortions about India's history and culture, but even so the attack on the Christian community is astounding for its colossal combination of ignorance and arrogance. The constant refrain of the RSS school is that Christians are abusing 'our hospitality' as though India was the fiefdom of the RSS. By calling them 'alien', the saffron brigade appears completely ignorant of the fact that Christianity came to India in the first century AD, long before colonialism.
It is ironic that VHP, which is largely financed by non-resident Indians who chose to desert their motherland for the West, should question the patriotism or citizenship rights of a community which has been living harmoniously in India for close to 2,000 years.
As for the charge of conversion, even after all these centuries and 200 years of British Raj, the truth is the Christians remain a very small community in India. If they were hell bent on converting Hindus surely they would not have remained less than three per cent of the population.
While Christians have been a target from the outset, it is only now that they are being systematically attacked. But why this animosity towards Christians without any provocation? The answer perhaps lies in the BJP's electoral compulsions of which the RSS has always been very mindful.
The systematic targeting of Muslims culminating in the demolition of the Babri Masjid gave the BJP its 'distinctive' profile and an electoral harvest. But the party reached a certain plateau and could not milk the Ayodhya issue further. Moreover, in its bid to win allies, the BJP has had to don a moderate image.
Since the Muslim community is far larger and relatively more cohesive, and more importantly electorally crucial, the BJP has tried to strike a hypocritical peace with the community. This was particularly evident on the eve of the last general elections when Vajpayee tried to woo Muslims. This does not mean that Hindutva forces have given up their hostility towards them. But for the time being, it is in the interests of the BJP to avoid confrontation with the community lest it lose its allies.
At the same time, to keep alive the goal of a Hindu rashtra, cadres have to be fed notions of superiority. It is to satisfy this, blood lust that RSS leadership appears to be targeting Christians. Muslims have been identified and "taught a lesson." It .is now the turn of the Christians. And then will come, turn by turn, all those who stand for a secular India.
It is, therefore, imperative to fight the latest tactic of the saffron brigade. Far from turning 'moderate' with the assumption of power, it has only whetted their appetite to pave the way for their Hindu rashtra.
Extract from The Examiner:
Four Indian Catholic nuns in the State of Madhya Pradesh were allegedly raped on 22-23 September, 1998. Five people so far have been taken into custody. Hospital reports have confirmed the charge of rape, and Christians are demanding for justice.
Police in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on 24th September, 1998 took five persons into custody in connection with the alleged rape of four Catholic nuns in their forest clinic in the tribal areas of Jhabua district along the Narmada river. This region is just across the river from the tribal tracts of the state of Gujarat, which has seen an orgy of anti-Christian violence through much of this summer. Official sources said the five have not yet been charged, and have not yet been formally placed under arrest.
Doctors at the government hospital at Jhabua have meanwhile confirmed that at. least one nun had been gang raped while three others were sexually molested. All four were injured and still in a state of shock. The Catholic diocese of Indore, which has ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Jhabua, however said all four nuns had been gang raped by a group of up to fifteen persons on the night of 22nd and 23rd September.
Diocese secretary Fr Lukas said the gang broke through the convent gates and then broke down the doors of the chapel where the nuns were in hiding. 'The gang took the sisters one by one to the fields outside and gang raped them,' Fr Lukas said in a written statement. State Home Minister Harbhajan Singh had earlier announced rewards of Rs 50,000 Oust over one thousand dollars) each for information about those involved in the early morning attack on the convent in Navapara Bhandaria village about 25 kilometers from the district headquarters in Jhabua in south west Madhya Pradesh.
The minister said he was expecting several arrests shortly, as a large police force was hot on the trail of the criminals. He said the borders with Gujarat were being watched. Singh said those involved in the crime were local tribals of the Bheel and Bhilala communities, a predominantly non-Christian group.
The minister's assurances came as an enraged Christian community demanded of national President K R Narayanan urgent and tough action to hunt down the culprits. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh has ordered a magisterial enquiry into the mass rape, but this has not satisfied the community which wants deeper investigation by central police forces.
Catholic Bishops Conference of India President Archbishop Alan de Lastic told President Narayanan and Indian Home Minister L K Advani in sharply-worded letters that the Christian community was 'feeling' insecure and disturbed at this increasing violence against them in different parts of the country.' The Archbishop said India's image had taken a battering as nuns, who had taken a vow of chastity and poverty were targeted by criminals. 'Most nuns work in the rural areas of India and therefore are vulnerable to the vested interests of anti-social elements,' he said.
The All India Catholic Union moved the National Commission for Minorities and the Human Rights Commission, two watchdog organisations, demanding powerful investigations into the outrage. The Union charged there was a well-planned conspiracy against the Christian community whose priests, nuns, evangelists and institutions were targets of coordinated violence in recent months. Formal complaints were filed by AICU National Secretary John Dayal. In another hard hitting statement, Bishop Vincent Concessao of the Justice and Peace Commission of the CBCI said the vulnerability of women was being exploited towards a more sinister plan 'to terrorize minorities for political ends'.
Extract from Indian Currents :
"Because mine is served there, whv can't churches be excluded?. " asks Excise Minister
In June 1998, Delhi's BJP Government had harboured ambitious plans to remove churches from the list of places of worship. Excise Minister Rajender Gupta had recommended, in writing, that churches be removed from the list of religious places. His reason: sacramental wine is distributed there. Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma had reportedly endorsed this suggestion.
How did it all begin? In May, the Capital's Catholic churches had applied for a permit to procure 1500 litres of wine from Goa. Mr. Gupta, in his wisdom, granted the permit with a rider that churches be excluded from the list of religious places for granting of excise licence since wine is distributed there.
The misrepresentation of the relevance of the sacramental wine by Mr Rajender Gupta forced the community to think of an action plan to counter the charges which some describe as "mischievous". Bishop Vincent Concessao, Auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of Delhi, said that the statements of minister amounted to "penalising religion for the good service it is doing !or the mankind." He felt that the sanctity of the churches would suffer if the government treats it like any other place instead of a place of religion and worship.
Excise rules say that no IMFL (Indian Made Foreign Liquor) outlet is to be allowed within 75 metres of any place of worship including temples, churches and mosques. Incidentally, an application for an IMFL permit from Karol Bagh Union Club is pending with the Government. The club shares a boundary wall with the Delhi Bible Fellowship Worship Centre where prayers are held every Sunday. So, according to rules, the club cannot get a license, as churches are listed as religious places.
"We have to look at these rules from the practical standpoint," Mr Gupta said. "Drinking is a social habit and we certainly don't want any drunk entering a place of worship. But because wine is served in a church, why can't it be excluded from this rule? I am not disturbing the sanctity of the church at all, nor is there any contradiction with their leaders. I am not at all bothered about whether or not they serve wine in the church but am only interested in finding more new places where liquor shops can be started," he stated.
Mr Gupta's logic appears to be that since wine is already distributed (albeit in minute quantities) during religious ceremonies on church premises, it would not be offensive to their sentiments if it also flowed merrily all around in the immediate neighbourhood. When asked if the liquor lobby was pressing for the decision, Mr Gupta said: "We have such applications before us but we cannot entertain them because of the existing rules."
Left parties and representatives of Christian organisations strongly protested against the Delhi Government's plan to remove churches off the list of religious places. The matter was raised in the House during zero hour by CPI (M) member Suresh Kurup of Kerala, who said, "To label this as serving wine in churches and hence to exclude churches from the definition of places of worship shows utmost intolerance and amounts to trampling on the religious rights of minorities."
The CPI, too, demanded that the BJP withdraw its orders and apologies to the Christian community for hurting. their religious sentiments. "Such a move is a 'manifestation of BJP's intolerance to minorities. The move should be condemned in the strongest terms by all people who believe in secularism and religious freedom." Said party national secretary D. Raja.
However, the controversy regarding the Delhi government's new excise policy was cleared by Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma himself, who assured that no liquor shop will be allowed to come up within 75 metres of any religious place, including churches.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said that the Delhi government's move to remove churches from the list of places of worship was "wrong." He was replying to irate Opposition members in the Lok Sabha. Who demanded an explanation regarding the Delhi government’s move to denotify churches on the ground that wine was served within their premises.
The Prime, Minister said the Central government would seek a report from the Delhi authorities to ascertain all the facts in the matter. He added that he was opposed to the imposition of any restrictions on the Christian community. -
Archbishop's House 1, Ashok Place New Delhi 1 1 0 001
3 July 1 998
To Mr Rajender Gupta, The Honourable Excise Minister National Capital Territory of Delhi New Delhi - 110 054
Sub: Indian,,Express report dated 3 July 1998, "Delhi's BJP Govt. wants churches off religious places list."
Sir,
We are utterly surprised at reading the front page report in the Indian Express with the title of "Delhi's, BJP Govt. wants churches off religious places list" in today's paper (copy enclosed). At this juncture, we are not even sure if this is a genuine and official statement from the hon'ble minister or a mischievous reporting by the press. In any case such an irresponsible statement from whichever source it might have ensued - has deeply hurt, our religious sentiments and beliefs.
Further we would like to get two important clarifications from you and your office. What is the issue at stake that you are referring to? The other clarification is what are the implications of removing the church off the "religious places" list?
Whatever the issue at stake, such a statement as reported in the press is a gross misrepresentation of facts, which not only ridicules our sacred religious rituals and practices but also damages the good image that this religion has always enjoyed. To even conceive of such an action as proposed goes against the very fundamental rights guaranteed by our Constitution, to all Indians in the practice of their faith.
We would like to place the facts before you with regard to the above allegations:
Lastly such a statement which could have far reaching implications requires your immediate attention. I hope you will make a statement to undo the damage already done to the Christian community due to the press report.
Yours faithfully,
Bishop Vincent Concessao Auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of Delhi
Extract from Indian Currents :
The dead body of Father A.T. Thoinas (46), a Jesuit priest, was found in the jungles between Sirea and Chichi in Hazaribagh, Bihar on October 28,1997. The body had been chopped off its head.
The news of his murder comes as shock to the people, and Christians in particular, as this happens close on the heels of the shameful incident in which another Catholic priest, Fr. Christudas, was stripped naked and paraded naked in Dumka, Bihar.
Fr. Thomas SJ, who was doing his M.A. in Sociology in Manila, had returned to Hazaribagh for his field study in Katkamsandi block. On 24th October he went towards Fatha to collect data for his research.
"Since he did not return to the base on 24th October evening, we sent our field staff in the areas he might have gone," says Fr. Edward Mudavassery SJ of Loyola Centre, Hazaribagh.
Two days later, on 26th October, it was rumoured in the bazaar of Barkagaon that he was seen going towards Sirea village, about 4 kms off Fatha. It was then feared that he was kidnapped by one of the armed gan-s operating in that area.
"So far we had not received any threats or warnings from any of these gangs and we have been working peacefully for the last 15 years in the educational, health and Mahila Vikas Service" said the fathers.
However, the headless body of the missing priest was recovered from the jungles on 28th morning. Fr. Thomas had been working in this area for six years before he went to Manila for his studies in 1995. He is well known in all the villages of Barkagaon and part of Katkamsandi blocks" recalls Fr. Edward. He had established a network of village schools and other organizations for the miserably poor people of the locality.
The funeral services were conducted on 28 October at 2 pm at the Catholic Ashram, Hazaribagh. There are no clues related to the murder available to this moment (at the time that this story originally went to print), though the place is haunted by extremists on the one hand and upper caste Hindu fanatics on the other.
Can the cry of the innocent blood be silent? Those stained by the blood of the slain priest should be brought to the book and the conspiracy behind the murder, if any, to the daylight.
Extract from Indian Currents :
The decapitated and bruised body of Father A.T. Thomas, S.J. was found in a jungle near a village just 20 kms Southwest of Hazaribagh, Bihar on Monday 27th October.
A few years back Father Thomas had supported the Dalits in their bid to cultivate a piece of land which had been unjustly grabbed by a higher caste group in the neighbourhood. To their surprise they managed to, win the case in court and some members of the upper caste group were imprisoned for forcible land grabbing. This was a victory for the Dalits and a tremendous loss of face for the upper castes. They went to jail, but they never. forgot who was behind their imprisonment.
Fr. Thomas had just returned from Manila, where he had gone eighteen months ago to do his M.A. in Sociology, to do some research in the villages near Hazaribagh. He was doing research in one of the villages to complete work on his thesis. On October 24th he had gone to Sirka village about 3 kms away. The story goes that he arrived in Sirka in time to find a group of people dressed in Police uniform beating up one of the villagers. When he went to find out what was going on, seeing him one of the ‘policemen’ recognised his as the man who sent them to jail some time ago. He was then surrounded and taken away at gun point even though the villagers protested it. It turned out that the ‘police’ were infact a breakaway group of insurgents, who under the guise of a people’s movement were busy extorting money from one of the villagers. The news of Fr. Thomas’ kidnapping got to Hazaribagh that night , but the Jesuits moved with much caution, thinking perhaps that a precipitous move by the police would only result in further trouble for the villagers and the priest himself.
All possible venues were explored during the next two days in order to find out where he was and whether there was a demand for ransom which used often to be the case in this type of kidnapping. By Sunday evening the rumour spread that he had been killed. And on Monday, 27th October 1997, his decapitated and battered body was seen in a river bed not far from Sirka. The Police were informed and the body was brought to Hazaribagh for post-mortem and buried the next day.
Fr. Thomas was 46 years old. He entered the Society of Jesus ( Jesuits ) at the age of 17 and was ordained in 1981. He took his final vows in 1991. Bright in studied he became an enthusiastic student of Liberation Theology and he admired and respected in a special way those priests and people who had given their lives for the poor and oppressed in Latin America and other parts of the world. He has now joined them in martyrdom and in no less than them in his love of the poor, in his commitment to change the unjust social structures like casts which are the bane of Bihar and many other States.
Fr. Thomas was particularly interested in trying ways of getting the children of the ‘untouchables’ to achieve basic literacy. There was no way that they be able to seriously attend the local schools because during the day their parents needed their labour, so Thomas and his companions started night schools and gradually developed a network of such schools through the environs of Hazaribagh.
When he and his teachers sat with the village people at night they had to listen to horrendous stories of injustice and they gradually became involved with the people in their struggle to find some degree of justice in a deeply unjust world.
He will be remembered for his courage, his humour, his love of friends and his total commitment to the oppressed. He is a true martyr. Jesus Christ, the liberator of the poor and oppressed, will surely be proud of him.
Extract from Indian Currents :
"We are groping in the dark. This is beyond words," Bishop Charles Soreng of Hazaribagh, Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) secretary general, sums up the feelings of Church on recent brutal assaults on Catholic religious.
Hardly before the Christian community came to terms with the naked parading of Fr. Christudas of Dumka diocese on Sep. 2, it was stunned by the October beheading of Jesuit Father A.T. Thomas - both in Bihar. Kidnapped by a militant group from a village near Sirka on Oct. 24, the headless body of Fr. Thomas with severe torture marks and his hands tied at the back was found on Oct. 27 morning in a jungle at Sirka 20 kms from Hazaribagh.
"The people are stunned. Evervone feels helpless," said Bishop Soreng who led the Oct. 28 funeral service of the slain priest with his headless body (the head is yet to be traced). The CBCI secretary general said it is "difficult" to conclude that both Dumka and Hazaribagh incidents are "part of an anti-Christian conspiracy."
The slain priest was well known in the villages for setting up several village schools among poor Dalits before he went to Manila in 1995 for doing MA in Sociology. However, his tragic end came after he came to Hazaribagh in August for field studies, required for his degree, and was to return to Manila in Jan.1998 to complete his studies.
The murder of Fr. Thomas close on the heels of the naked parading of Dumka diocesan priest has caused "great fear and anguish" among 16-million Catholics. "The repeated incidents of violence against Christian priests have deeply shaken confidence in the administration in Bihar," pointed out Indian Church in a desperate memorandum to the federal President, Prime Minister, and Home Minister. The Oct. 28 memorandum urged the federal government "to intervene directly" with the Bihar government to book the guilty in the "heinous crime" immediately.
Latest information on Hazaribagh situation makes it amply clear that the beheading of Fr. Thomas has close parallels in the murder of student leader Chandra Sekhar and of social, activist Sanjoy Ghose in the recent past. While the former was blown off allegedly by some political 'stalwarts' who feared exposure of their criminal deeds, Sanjoy's work in the river island of Majuli was gradually bringing into daylight the plunder of Govt. funds by avicious contractors-politician-militants nexus; hence he had to be done away with - a task shamelessly accomplished by the ULFA. In short, all the above three had taken up cudgels on behalf of the oppressed exploited people and their killers were none other than those who bore personal vendetta against them.
However, Christians can expect little justice in this case as in the cases of Chandra Sekhar and Sanjoy Ghose. Reliable sources say local police have already got clear information on the murderers, but refuse to proceed. The villagers are reluctant to give testimony since those behind the murder have threatened the illiterate villagers with liquidation against cooperating with the police. Even the police is scared of the culprits and so, wants the Church to identify the culprits.
It is true some human rights groups came forward to support Christians in Bihar to protest parading a citizen naked - and that too, with the support of the police and other government officials. "With his clothes stripped, garland of chappals around his neck, Fr. Christudas was beaten up and made to walk naked for over three hours even as senior police officials encouraged the mob", to put it in the words John Dayal, a member of the National Minority Commission investigation team. Even an animal welfare society would not tolerate such treatment to an animal!
Tell-tale marks of torture on Father Thomas' headless body bore abundant testimony how much he had to suffer for his commitment for the poor Dalits (not Christian Dalits).
However, the silence of the most of the major human rights groups on these two shocking incidents raise questions whether they are truly secular. When a woman is paraded naked or raped, they make hue and cry. But somehow Dumka and Hazaribagh incidents have not evoked such enthusiastic response from them. Both incidents are branded as "minority concerns". Indeed, these groups need to ask themselves why they did not react promptly.
Self-examination has to be done on the part of Christians as well. The community never made a serious attempt to take secular social activist groups into confidence into the murders (besides couple of rapes) of nearly 20 Catholic priests and nuns in the last two decades. In majority of the assaults, vested interests had a crucial role. The murder of two (tribal) priests and a brother in Gumla also in Bihar in 1994 could not be seen in isolation from the protests against setting up a firing range in tribal areas.
The murder of Sister Rani Maria in Indore in the Madhya Pradesh State in Feb. 1995 too reflected the grave danger those working for social justice have to live with. The Clarist nun was stabbed in a bus in front of 50 fellow travellers by those opposed to her work - liberating poor tribals from the clutches of money lenders. The man who led the fatal assault was local leader of a political party and locals were intimidated against giving witness in court against him. Even the memorial locals built for the murdered nun was pulled down by those opposed to her.
Hardly before Franciscan Sisters of Mary of Angels had settled in their convent in April 1995 at Suryanagar on Delhi border, assailants broke in at midnight and beat up five nuns and their maid with iron rods. The assailants neither ransacked the convent nor asked for money. They simply beat them up and left saying "they are dead, let's go". The motive of the assailants was clear - scare the nuns away as they were setting up a new convent among poor slum people with the aim of their social uplift.
The trauma of the assault continue to haunt the nuns. Even after two and half years, Sister Effy, now 47, has fading memory while another victim of the attack Sister Angeli continues to suffer blackouts. Though Sister Cecil, then local superior, was not seriously injured she is still haunted by the memory of battering of others so much so she is "always in a hurry to leave whenever she comes here." Says present superior of the convent, Sister Leena.
"Vested interests opposed to our work amoung marginalised tribals and Dalits have a hand in most of the4 attacks," says Fr. Varkey Perekkat, head of the 3700 member Jesuit community in South Asia. "They are trying to divert our attention from our work with such attacks - keeping us preoccupied with the bureaucracy, police and courts," points out the dead of the Jesuits who have lost four priests in murders.
Vested interests not only target those who dare to challenge but make sure that the real culprits are never brought to book. The lethargic way Bihar government responded to Dumka case reinforces the feeling of indifference approach by the government. They have been other occasions then Christian community failed to get justice for "extraneous" reasons.
The subsequent developments in the infamous Gajraula rape case illustrate this. Christian educational institutions across the country remained closed for the first time in July 1990 demanding the arrest of the culprits who raped and molested nuns at Our Lady of Graces Convent at Gajraula, 110 kilometres south of Delhi. Two years later, Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI ) announced reward of rupees 1,00,000 for "useful clues" on the assault. The CBI enquiry was itself ordered only after Indian Church moved the Supreme Court against the tardy Uttar Pradesh State police investigation.
The nuns had to go for several parades to identify the culprits, but the real culprits were never brought. The police produced in court as accused criminals who were in jail at the time of the crime. Insiders say police knew the culprits but were under pressure to protest them. Fed up with the enquiries and farcical trial, the nuns themselves wanted the whole investigation stopped.
In 1995, the Supreme Court ordered the state government to pay compensation of rupees 250,000 each to two nuns who were raped and rupees 1 00,000 each to five nuns who were assaulted. However, the compensation was an eye-wash to divert public attention from the failure of the police to arrest the culprits even after five years. Compensation could be no substitute for justice. Though CBI report recommended action against the police and government hospital doctors for their misconduct with the victims of rape, the apex court did not give an ultimatum to the investigating agency to arrest the culprits.
The Madhya Pradesh State has consistently adopted Nelson’s eye to the "forced reconversion" of Christian tribals into Hinduism. Archbishop Pascal Topno of Bhopal admits the Church has lost 25,000 tribal Christians to Hinduism over the last few years in the tribal heartland of Raigarh. The Vananasi Kalyan Samiti hold "homecoming" ceremonies regularly in Christian tribal villages and literally force them to disown their faith. The poor tribals are terrorised not to go back to the churches again, said Archbishop Topno, himself a tribal and former Bishop of Raigarh.
Further, some bureaucrats never miss an opportunity to harass Christians by invoking the 1968 Freedom of Religion Act against Christians. In Jan. 1996, an 82 year old priest and a tribal nun were sentenced to six months rigorous imprisonment for baptising of tribals in 1989 "without informing" the District Collector. Both of them had been fighting for the rights of tribals against a contractor who is alleged to have "manipulated the situation to complain against them".
The Hazaribagh and Dumka incidents have created a sense of insecurity among Christians especially dedicated priests and nuns who strive to give voice to the exploited and oppressed groups in an inequitable social order. The Church needs to respond more positively and tactically in the wake of the emotionally charged atmosphere left by the recent brutal assaults.
Shouts of "we want justice" reverberated as scores of priests and nuns joined a march in New Delhi on Oct. 22 to protest the inaction of the Bihar government over the Dumka incident. As the police denied permission for the march, Archbishop Allen de Lastic of Delhi even advised the 2,000 protesters over the mike that they could reach Biliar Bhavan, 4 kms., away, of their own to present a memorandum. But hardly before he completed saying it, the nuns led the determined protesters in forcing their way ahead like khabadi ( an Indian sport ) players while the police tried to prevent the march.
Extract from Indian Currents :
The body of Brother Luke Puttaniyil 46, of Missionaries of Charity, reported missing from Calcutta since 22 March, was found buried next to railway tracks under an overbridge in Novada, Bihar, with bullet marks on the head and the back. He was accompanying a truckload of supplies for leprosy patients from Calcutta to Patna when he was reported missing along with the truck, its driver and cleaner.
The bodies of the truck driver and cleaner were also found at the same spot.
One bullet had ripped Brother Luke's back and another had made a hole in his skull. His hands and feet were tied , with ropes and a shirt had been stuffed into his mouth. Police officials in Calcutta said initial inquiries indicated that the truck had been hijacked by highway robbers who murdered the passengers and fled with the vehicle.
A police team from Patna went to Novada on Monday after reports of the three unidentified bodies appeared in a local daily. On hearing the news, a Missionaries of Charity team led by Brother Jeff, head of the Brothers' community in Calcutta, and Sister Nirmala, Superior General of MC Sisters rushed to Gaya on Tuesday.
"The photos of the dead body and the pair of trousers, under police custody, helped identify the disfigured face and body of Brother Luke. The body was exhumed on 31st March and buried on 1st April in the nearest Missionaries of Charity community at Gaya, (some three hours drive from the where the 'unclaimed' body was disposed off", said Brother Raju, MC Brothers spokesman.
Father Thomas, parish priest of Novada, 120 kms from Patna, reported that Bihar Police discovered three bodies on rail-tracks under the Novada overbridge. The incident took place in the area under Bundelghat Police Jurisdiction.
Hailing from Nelloorenad in Wayanad, Kerala, Brother Luke belonged to the Missionaries of Charity Brothers community, Patna.
"Truck (WB-03/4376) of the Balurghat Transport Co. Ltd. of Calcutta was destined for the Missionaries of Charity Centre at Gonpura in Patna. It was transporting medicine, food and clothes for leprosy patients and the poor," states the first information report filed on 29 March, at the Tangra Police Station, Calcutta.
When the Patna home sent a message that the truck had not reached its destination, an FIR was filed with the police on 26 March. The Calcutta police started looking into the case after it was informed of the disappearance by Sister M. Lynn from Mother House on 29 March.
Father C.M. Paul and Father Sebastian said the Missionaries of Charity will ask the police to inquire into the circumstances leading to the incident.
Extract from Indian Currents :
Christians, the most peaceful community in India, in the recent past, have been facing the worst situation ever since Independence. Isn't it an irony that the violence and brutality to Christian activists in Bihar stands testimony to this?
The city of Ahmedabad is no exception either. The Hindu fundamentalists have sprung up from no where to disrupt Christian get togethers, prayer meetings, processions. and even Christmas carols. The convenors and co-ordinators of the meetings were dragged to court over the organisation of prayer meetings. With Christmas fast approaching the leaders of the Christian churches are reconsidering their earlier commitment to sing midnight carols at the residences of the parish members.
Said Koshy P. Chacko, a member of St Mary's Orthodox Church and also an academician, "The threat of disrupting has moved into our heart. At any given time during the carols, the Hindu fundamentalists may break in and that is precisely the reason why we have almost cancelled the carols this year."
In a case filed in the court of law against the prayer and healing service, held at Ahmedabad in the month of February '97 and lead by Rev. Roger Haustma from the USA, the convenor Pastor Yohannan Mathew was one of the accused. His crime - organising a Christian prayer movement! "I am not moved at all", he firmly reassures himself. Still fighting the case, the never-say-die spirit in him is firm on his eternal eagerness to bring more prayer meetings to Ahmedabad.
"The Christians do no charity but forcible conversions", accused Vishal Thakkar, one of the petitioners. Vishal was one among thousands who had queued up for days for a mere admission form in the prestigious St Xavier's College of Ahmedabad. "No, you cannot compare study with religion" said Vishal. But what he fails to remember is the culture the Christian institutions have poured upon these people while they were in their tender ages. The same goes with the Leprosy Hospital and the Missionaries of Charity at Ahmedabad.
"No Hindu institution can undertake this type of charity work effectively", admits Rajat Joshi, a BJP activist. But he is equally apprehensive of 'conversions'. "But what is the motive behind luring people in the name of charity?"
The High Court of Gujarat issued a one-day stay to the Roger Haustma meeting when the petitioners brought video tapes of the Bible Convention, widely circulated as a healing service. The tapes showed that people with handicaps were called on the stage and made to do what earlier they ad been unable to do. The petitioners challenged these hearings were stage managed and even before the convention the very same people were seen mingling into the crowd with no defects at all. They alleged that the purpose was only conversion. But in spite of the stay order, nearly 30 thousand people on an average turned up for 4 days.
Close on the heels of this, Dr D.G.S. Dinakaran and his team of Jesus Calls fame organised another convention. The attendance was still higher - nearly one lakh people everyday. "We were overwhelmed by the response of the people", said James Kurian, one of the volunteers. "After the problems that arose during the earlier convention, we were hesitant to conduct the meeting but as always, the Almighty is with us", he added.
But this meeting was also not without troubles. In the midst of the prayer meeting, some VHP fundamentalists tried to disrupt the meeting by raising 'Jai Shree Ram' slogans and also burnt a van parked outside. But police acted swiftly and removed the miscreants. However, the audience did not panic or move at all as if nothing had happened. The meeting was attended by many dignitaries including ministers and bureaucrats of the State.
The Christian population in the State of Gujarat has remained more or less constant. The 1991 census showed a population strength of 1.88 lakh, which is not correct by any standards. Says Fr Kidakkethalakkal, "Even if you count the members of each parish listed in the Catholic Church, the numbers go beyond 1.5 lakh". An estimated 2.5 lakh Christians live in Gujarat.
However, there are many Christians who favour a BJP rule in Gujarat. "When the culprits themselves become rulers, the. crime rates are bound to fall", commented Dr Thomas, a medical practitioner at the Civil Hospital. "People's knowledge of history here is very poor and that is the reason why they look at Christians as foreigners", he added. The petition filed by Vishal Thakkar virtually confirms Dr Thomas' observation. The eighth paragraph of the petition reads: "The petitioners most respectfully state and submit that the petitioners are Hindu by religion and have no interest in the outcome of the campaign in question nor the petitioners are in any way connected with the campaign in question, but as good citizens of the country, with feelings of their profession Hindu religion, it is their right to preserve the feelings of Hindu precisely in a case where the same is likely to be played with such people who are foreigners to the, country".
In a strongly worded response, Pastor Yohannan Mathew points out that following Christian religion does not mean that Christians cease to be Indians. Instead. the sovereignty and security of the country would be endangered by not practising freedom of religion. Without directly pointing out, the reply puts a needle of suspicion on the Hindus who have threatened the country's sovereignty and security by joining hands with anti-national fundamentalists.
The resentment among the Hindu fundamentalists came to the fore when the VHP started a campaign to bring back those Hindus converted to other religions. Says Arvind Brahmbhatt of VHP, "Up to a level of charity, the work is good, but we will not allow any Christian charity organisation to convert people to Christianity. We have already re-converted many to Hinduism." But his claim stands far from truth. In the Saputara hills, where a majority of the tribals are Christians, the VHP attempts proved futile. They were driven out by the villagers when approached with Hindu fundamentalism. "The peace-loving Christian community cannot be mute spectators to the derogatory remarks and attacks by the so called patriots", said Dr Thomas.
This apprehension may take a new twist if the attack continues, feel a good number of Christians.
Extracts from The New Leader
The Bharatiya Janata Party-run Delhi government's move earlier this month to remove churches from the list of places of worship because sacramental wine is distributed there is not an isolated instance of hurting the sentiments of the minority Christian community and threaten its identity. Over the last few years and more so in the last three months, there has been a systematic plan executed by RSSVHP, Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena cadres to denigrate, harass, intimidate and terrorise the minuscule Christian community in India who number around 23 million forming barely 2.6 per cent of the Indian population.
Following the outcry in Parliament over the Delhi government's move on churches, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in a characteristic display of hand-wringing innocence, claimed that his government respected the sentiments of the Christian community. It was a typical instance of hypocrisy, of a piece with his much publicised lament at the demolition of the Babri Masjid, for neither the prime minister nor the union home minister have made any statements on the series of attacks on Christian priests, institutions and prayer meetings, a bulk of which have taken place in BJP-ruled states in recent months.
Three-pronged attack
Representatives of the Christian community such as the Catholic Bishops Conference of India and the All India Catholic Union which have compiled statistics of the spate of attacks see a sharp rise in last five years. According to incomplete data collected by the CBCI of the killings of priests and rape/ molestation of nuns, while only six cases took place in the first five years after 1978, there have been 17 cases in the last five years.
But that is only one, albeit extreme, form of violence against the community. According to the All India Catholic Union national secretary, John Dayal, the attacks on Christians have been launched on three different fronts.
First, there is direct violence against the religious community of priests and nuns. These include in the years 1996 and 1997 the torture of Fr Christudas in Bihar, killing of Fr A.T. Thomas in Bihar, the shooting of Fr N.V. Jose in Manipur, the murder of Sr. Augusta in Assam, of Sr. Rani Maria in M.P., grievous attack on Brother Tirkey on May 15, 1998 in Ranchi attack, on pastor Jahkya Digal in Phulbani, Orissa.
Second, attacks on evangelists and violent disruption of prayer meetings. There has been a steep rise in this category particularly since the BJP came to power at the Centre. Such attacks have taken place in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh in recent months.
Third, pressure on Christian institutions including schools, colleges, hospitals, churches. These include a sudden spurt in harassment from municipal authorities regarding land permit, charges of encroachments and a rash of cases revolving around disputed land hitherto held by Christian institutions. The Christian community has experienced a distinct increase of harassment against schools (campaigns against school principals, school curriculum, charges of proselytisation), hospitals (for instance, two established mission hospitals in Delhi are being needled by the authorities regarding land) and, of course, churches some of which have been demolished.
Pre-planned pattern
There is a frightening similarity in the pattern of attacks taking place, suggesting an apex level guidance and co-ordination by the RSS and VHP leadership. A cursory study of the recent instances of violence will bear this out. The site of the highest number of attacks in recent months has been the state of Gujarat. This is not surprising, because it is the State in which the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has the most widespread network and where the BJP's growth has been built on the VHP base. Any nation-wide strategy on part of the Saffron brigade to attack Christians would be most effectively carried out on this State.
The attacks in Gujarat have taken place with dizzying frequency. On March 2 this year, a meeting attended by local and some foreign missionaries was attacked in Padra village of Baroda district with the missionaries violently manhandled by slogan shouting youths. Two days later on March 4, a prayer meeting and healing session organised by the Pentecostal Church in the Polo grounds in Baroda town was violently disrupted. It was the first day of a scheduled four-day long Ishu Mahotsav or Jesus celebration. Shouting slogans such as Garv Se Kaho Hum Hindu Hain, over 200 activists of the VHP and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) broke the mike, set the stage on fire and beat up those who were on the stage. The four day meeting was abandoned after this incident. On April 11, yet another attack by RSS-VHP members took place on a meeting of Christians at Palanpur municipal hall. A three day meeting from April 10 (Good Friday) was being held. The authorities had been informed and police protection sought. Police constables were on duty on April 10. On April 11 afternoon, a special session was being held for women.At4.30pm, 15persons entered the municipal hall after climbing over the wall from behind. They first .ransacked the kitchen, then entered the hall and beat up the women, and damaged a bus parked outside before leaving . On April 15, residents of Naroda village, led by their deputy sarpanch, demolished a Catholic church around 25 km from Ahmedabad on grounds that it was allegedly being built without permission from the civic authorities though it stood on land bought by the church about five years ago. Most recently' the St Mary's School in the Naroda locality of Ahmedabad was vandalised by Bajrang Dal members on May 28. The frenzied youth were in the midst of their so-called swadeshi campaign against Coke and Pepsi and shouted slogans in the school against institutions allegedly spreading foreign culture.
In Maharashtra too, the Shiv Sena and RSS have stepped up attacks on Christians. Early this year, an RSS outfit Jankalyan Samiti attacked a voluntary organisation called Shruti run by the Catholic Health Association of India in Nandugarhin Laturdistrict. A large number of goons attacked the Shruti office and pelted Sister Marleen and Father Jeevendra Jadhav with stones and beat them up, accusing them of converting the village children to Christianity.
More recently, on May 11, 1998 Shiv Sainiks barged into a meeting being conducted at the MMM High School in Ambarnath. The priest was giving a sermon. The hoodlums attacked the priest, Fr. Octavio Anthony Nevis, with iron bars, broke an amplifier, speaker and tubelights, and created chaos by throwing crackers among the gathering. The local Shiv Sena boss later justified the attack saying that the meetings were aimed at proselytising the region. The latest attack in the state took place in the Bombay suburb of Malad on June 16, 1998.Achapelof the St Savariyar Church under the patronage of the famous century old Orien Church was razed to the ground. The church was built 10 years ago and renovated recently. On Junel6,withoutanynotification, the P-North ward of the Bombay Municipal Corporation razed the entire chapel. In response to a complaint by the All India Catholic Union, following the initial attacks in Gujarat and Maharashtra, the National Human Rights Commission on March 26,1998 had directed the police in the two states to take expeditious action against the people who attacked Christians in Baroda and Latur. But the continuing attacks in the subsequent months shows that this directive has had no effect.
Apart from these two states, similar attacks have taken place in Punjab, UP and Rajasthan. In Punjab, a prayer meeting was attacked in Ludhiana on October 25, 1997 by VHP activists and six young Christians brutally beaten up. Again on March 31, 1998 a group of youth ransacked a Christian congregation near Gro,,7er colony in Jalandhar repeating now by the standard routine: smashing tubelights, breaking furniture, setting the dais on fire, manhandling the organisers and forcing the people to leave. In Rajasthan, the campaign has been more systematic. The target has been small Christian institutions and activities in the tribal dominated districts of Udaipur and Banswara. VHP leaflets accusing them of spreading their faith and being foreigners has been distributed in the villages of the district. Their aim is to drive out the Christians from the area. In late 1997, they presented a memorandum to the district magistrate to stop all activities of Christians in the district and the state. In Banswara district, after 12 years of peaceful possession of plot of land purchased by a tribal priest, it was forcibly occupied by local youth. A Catholic school in Banswara was recently attacked, and the staff threatened.
An instance has come to light even in Uttar Pradesh. Just as in Baroda and Jalandhar and Ambarnath, on March 16,1998 Bajrang Dal goondas attacked a prayer meeting in Kanpur. A three-day meeting was to be held from March 16 to 18 at Maswanpur under Kalyanpur police station under the aegis of Assembly of Believers in India. On March 16, well before the meeting began, Bajrang Dal men descended on-the place, threw stones, beat up the organisers, sprinkled kerosene and set the stage on fire. The meeting had to be abandoned even though prior permission had been secured from the authorities and the police informed.
The above instances show a definite pattern, some of, the salient features of the recent attacks are: attacks on small, defenceless and isolated Christian groups in states where they are an insignificant minority. The VHP has so far not dared to attack the community in Kerala or Goa where they exist in much larger numbers, accuse all Christian institutions of carrying out conversions; accuse them of being alien and foreign to India; raise land use as pretext to carry out violent attacks with the clear aim to terrorise the entire community, the tacit and sometimes active connivance of state power to assist this terrorism. This is the primary reason for the spate of attacks in BJP-ruled states.
Ideological motivation
It is clear that the attack on prayer meetings, on churches, on missionary schools are not spontaneous outbursts of anger but part of a systematic plan. Neither are they cases of mindless violence. Rather, the saffron brigade's attack on the Christian community stems from the very essence of Hindutva ideology which sees India as the land of a monolithic "Hindu" community in which members of other faiths are alien and deserve no status. For the RSS, the principal enemies of the Hindurashtra are the Muslims and the Christians (followed by Communists) because they are not rooted in Indian soil.
The VHP and Bajrang Dal and RSS and BJP goons who go about shouting vicious slogans and indulging in crude violence are only the storm troopers of an ideology that is equally. shared by the likes of LK Advani and Atal Behari Vajpayee. The motivated attacks on the Christian community in recent months is a chilling real life application of what the former RSS chief and its premier ideologue, Guru Golwalkar exhorted decades ago. In his tract, We or Our Nationhood Defined, Golwalkar wrote: "In Hindustan exists and must needs exist the ancient Hindu nation and nought else but the Hindu nation. All those not belonging to the national Hindu race, religion, culture and language naturally fall out of the place of real national life.
"There are only two courses open to the foreign elements, either to merge themselves in the national race and adopt its culture, or to live at its mercy so long as the national race may allow them to do so and to quit the country at the sweet will of the national race. From this standpoint, sanctioned by the experience of shrewd old nations, the foreign races in Hindustan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must make their separate existence to merge in the Hind race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any p r e f e r e n t i a 1 treatment, not even citizen’s rights."
From time to time, the leadership has tried to disassociate itself from this tract, which remains for all purposes the RSS bible. But the tenor and manner of the attacks from Banswara to Baroda, from Latur to Ludhiana show how deeply ingrained is Golwalkar's ideology in the minds of their young cadres even at the end of the 20th century.
Ignorance and arrogance
The Hindutva ideology is based on a litany of lies and distortions about India's history and culture, but even so the attack on the Christian community is astounding for its colossal combination of ignorance and arrogance. The constraint refrain of the RSS school is that the Christians are abusing our hospitality as though India was the fiefdom of the RSS and its followers. By calling them outsiders and aliens, the Saffron brigade appears completely ignorant of the fact that Christianity came to India in the first century AD long before European colonialism. It is ironic that the VHP, which is largely financed by non-resident Indians (NRIs) who chose to desert their motherland for the charms of the West, should question the patriotism or citizenship rights of a community which has been living harmoniously in India for close to two thousand years.
As for the charge of conversion, even after all these centuries and two hundred years of British Raj, the truth is that the Christians remain a very small community in India. If the Christian community was hell bent on only converting Hindus, surely they would not have remained less than three per cent of the population.
Tactical shift
While Christians have been a target in Hindutva ideology from the outset, it is only now that they are being marked for systematic attack. An editorial in the November 1997 issue of Vislial Jagruti, the journal brought out by the All India Catholic Union, stated: "The Saiigh Parivar, after forty years of unceasing political and physical violence against the Muslim community has now expanded its arc of attack to include Christians of India, if not indeed Christianity in India. Only this can explain the effort to pervert the Constitution to put pressure on Christian institutions, or the denial of their human rights to Dalit Christians."
The question though is why this shift towards Christians without any provocation. The answer perhaps lies in the BJP's electoral compulsions of which the RSS has always been very mindful. The systematic targetting of the Muslim community, culminating in the demolition of the Babri Masjid gave the BJP its "distinctive" profile and an electoral harvest.
But the party has reached a certain plateau and cannot milk the Ayodhya issue further. Moreover, in its bid to win allies, the BJP has had to don a moderate image. Since the Muslim community is far larger and relatively more cohesive, and more importantly, electorally crucial in a large number of constituencies in the North, the BJP has, of late, tried to strike a hypocritical peace with the community. This was particularly evident on the eve of the last general elections when Vajpayee tried to woo the Muslims. This does not mean the Hindutva forces have given up their hostility towards the largest minority community in India. Kashi and Mathura and the temple in Ayodhya remain on their agenda. But for the time being, it is in the interests of the BJP to avoid confrontation with the community lest it lose its allies and remain confined to its limited electoral appeal.
At the same time, however the ideology of Hindutva, based as it is on hate and division and narrow chauvinism, cannot be diluted. To keep alive the goal of the Hindu rashtra, the cadres have to be constantly fed with notions of superiority, have to be constantly exhorted to fight 'the other,' have to be continuously engaged in violence and terrorism against the weak and defenceless. It is to satisfy this blood lust that the RSS leadership appears to be targeting the Christian community. The Muslims have been identified and taught a lesson. It is now the turn of the Christians. And then will come, turn by turn, all those who stand for secular India. It is therefore imperative to fight against the latest tactic of the Saffron brigade. Far from turning moderate with the assumption of power, it has only whetted their appetite for more blood and strife to pave the way for their Hindu rashtra.
Extract from Indian Currents:
Christian missionary school in Gujarat attacked copies of New Testament burnt. Even as Congress Working Cornmittee member Rajesh Pilot and GPCC president C.D. Patel were demanding a Home Ministry team to assess the deteriorating law and order situation in Gujarat, the saffron brigade struck again at two different places in the State.
The first attack was by the Bajrang Dal and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad on a Christian missionary school in Rajkot in the afternoon, while the second attack was inside the campus of the prestigious Centre for Environment, Planning and Technology (CEPT) in Ahmedabad late in the evening.
During the last four months, similar actions of the Sangh, parivar included disruption of a beauty pageant, burning down of Cola trucks, demolition of a Church and sparking communal tension in Bardoli over the marriage of a majority community girl with a minority community man. The role of the Sangh parivar in the attack on the postgraduate medical students from Kerala has not been established.
In the first strike of Monday, the Bajrang Dal and ABVP activists attacked Rajkot's IP Mission School and went inside the classrooms to beat up some students who were possessing copies of the New Testament distributed last week by an international Christian organisation.
Shouting slogans like Bharat Mata ki Jai and Vande Mataram, the activists snatched away nearly 300 copies of the New Testament from the students and set them on fire.
The distribution of the New Testament copies among the students had invited wrath of the Sangh parivar because the last page of the small book allegedly had a form containing the line "Christ is my saviour and I have decided to accept it".
The Bairang Dal and ABVP suspected that the school authorities were forcing the students to sign the said declaration at the last page of. the New Testament. The activists have also alleged that the school is encouraging conversions to Christianity by allowing distribution of the New Testament copies.
However, the school authorities have confirmed that the students were neither forced to purchase the book nor was anyone asked by the Sangh parivar to sign the 'objectionable' declaration.
The second attack by the Sangh parivar on Monday evening was apparently to check the 'menace' of ragging inside the campus of the Centre for Environment, Planning and Technology here.
The Sangh parivar activists Shouting Bharat Mata ki.Jai, came to the campus in several vehicles and asked the students whether ragging was still allowed there. Even before the students could fumble for an answer, the intruders whipped out knives, steel rods and tubelights and started beating up the innocent students.
The Sangh paivar activists also ransacked the classrooms and the office of the director before kidnapping three senior students in a Tata Sumo. The vehicle and the three kidnapped students were recovered in the outskirts of the city late in the night.
"No arrests have been made yet. Commissioner of Police Hirala told The Hindustan Times on Tuesday. The vehicle in which some students were kidnapped has been seized. The genuineness of the vehicle's number plate and its ownership are being ascertained from the RTO authorities, Mr Hiralal added.
The CEPT, a renowned institution of advance learning in the fields of architecture, environment and town planning, attracts students from all over the country and abroad. Due to a low emphasis on classroom teaching and high emphasis on outdoor projects and on-the-job training, the campus has a 'liberal' atmosphere which is believed to have invited the wrath of the Sangh parivar.
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