Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Christian Council cautions against mischief-makers

Christmas in Orissa under close scrutiny

 

Christian Council cautions against mischief-makers

 

 NEW DELHI – Dec. 22, 2008: Despite the cancelation of a state-wide bandh (strike) by ultra-nationalist Hindu groups, Christians in Orissa state are worried about possible anti-Christian violence over Christmas. 

Indian media reports on Dec. 20, 2008 said the rightwing Hindu group, the Swami Lakhmanananda Saraswati Shraddhanjali Samiti, met with Orissa’s Chief Minister and agreed to call off a state-wide shut-down planned for Dec. 25. However, aicc Orissa state leaders said the group was planning prayers from 5:10-5:40pm on Dec. 25th in temples across the state. There are fears the people gathered at each temple could be incited to attack Christians. The Samiti, which has called temples campaign, has been set up by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal, the two groups responsible for the December 2007 and August-October 2008 violence in the state

The 12 hour bandh was announced in mid-November if authorities failed to arrest the killers of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Lakhmanananda Saraswati by December 15, 2008. The murder of the religio-political leader on Aug. 23, 2008 triggered widespread anti-Christian violence despite claims of responsibility from Maoist militants.

 John Dayal, aicc Secretary General, said, “We appreciate Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik for doing the right thing and successfully urging Hindutva groups to call off their planned bandh. However, the government in Orissa – for that matter, in all states across India – must now ensure mischief makers do not sabotage the peace of the Christmas holidays.”

 Aicc is making plans to have teams of observers in Orissa to alert authorities should any violence begin. Plans called for teams to include both Christians and non-Christians – especially non-sectarian minded Hindus.

 Dayal said, “We encourage Indian Christians to celebrate the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth in a peaceful and harmonious manner. Christians across our great land must pray for the approximately 50,000 Dalit and Tribal Christians who will spend Christmas away from their damaged and destroyed homes. For many, this will be their second Christmas as refugees inside their own country.”

Christmas in Orissa under close scrutiny

 

Christian Council cautions against mischief-makers

 

 NEW DELHI – Dec. 22, 2008: Despite the cancelation of a state-wide bandh (strike) by ultra-nationalist Hindu groups, Christians in Orissa state are worried about possible anti-Christian violence over Christmas. 

Indian media reports on Dec. 20, 2008 said the rightwing Hindu group, the Swami Lakhmanananda Saraswati Shraddhanjali Samiti, met with Orissa’s Chief Minister and agreed to call off a state-wide shut-down planned for Dec. 25. However, aicc Orissa state leaders said the group was planning prayers from 5:10-5:40pm on Dec. 25th in temples across the state. There are fears the people gathered at each temple could be incited to attack Christians. The Samiti, which has called temples campaign, has been set up by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal, the two groups responsible for the December 2007 and August-October 2008 violence in the state

The 12 hour bandh was announced in mid-November if authorities failed to arrest the killers of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Lakhmanananda Saraswati by December 15, 2008. The murder of the religio-political leader on Aug. 23, 2008 triggered widespread anti-Christian violence despite claims of responsibility from Maoist militants.

 John Dayal, aicc Secretary General, said, “We appreciate Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik for doing the right thing and successfully urging Hindutva groups to call off their planned bandh. However, the government in Orissa – for that matter, in all states across India – must now ensure mischief makers do not sabotage the peace of the Christmas holidays.”

 Aicc is making plans to have teams of observers in Orissa to alert authorities should any violence begin. Plans called for teams to include both Christians and non-Christians – especially non-sectarian minded Hindus.

 Dayal said, “We encourage Indian Christians to celebrate the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth in a peaceful and harmonious manner. Christians across our great land must pray for the approximately 50,000 Dalit and Tribal Christians who will spend Christmas away from their damaged and destroyed homes. For many, this will be their second Christmas as refugees inside their own country.”

Friday, December 19, 2008

In Orissa, fears of more anti-Christian violence over Christmas

 

 

PRESS STATEMENT BY ALL INDIA CHRISTIAN COUNCIL

 

 


Extremist Hindutva  groups plan a bandh on Christmas Day

International community closely watching Orissa situation

 

NEW DELHI – December 19, 2008 – Rightwing Hindutva organisations in Orissa confirmed they will hold a bandh (strike) on Christmas Day triggering fears of further anti-Christian violence. Separately, politicians held hearings in Washington, D.C. and London about extremism and violence in India. And a European Union delegation conducted a fact finding trip to Orissa from Dec. 9-12, 2008


On Dec. 17, 2008, ultra-nationalist Hindutva groups said they will observe a state-wide shut-down for 12 hours on Christmas Day, reported The Hindu newspaper. The protest is due to the failure of authorities to arrest the killers of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Lakshmanananda Saraswati who was assassinated on Aug. 23, 2008. The Orissa Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik, opposes the bandh, and the newly appointed Minister of Home Affairs in New Delhi, P. Chidambaram, publicly assured Christians they’ll be safe. Aicc leaders remain concerned it will have the same results as an August 25th bandh which saw anti-Christian violence spread across the eastern state of Orissa. Last Christmas, a bandh called by a tribal organisation, Kui Samaj, resulted in unprecedented anti-Christian attacks throughout one district.


“The bandh is provocative. Combined with a continuing hate campaign against Christians, there is potential for violence over Christmas. We appeal to police, politicians, local language media, and civil society in Orissa – and across India – to seek peace instead of hostility,” said John Dayal, aicc Secretary General. “Specific actions like positioning adequate Central Reserve Police Forces and banning the entry of VHP and Bajrang Dal leaders from the sensitive Kandhamal District are essential.”


Dr. Joseph D’souza, aicc President, said, “The climate of intimidation and fear among Christians continues in Orissa. Although we hope the state and central authorities act to protect thousands of innocent victims and prevent future mob violence, we’re deeply worried. We are appealing for preventative action through all legal avenues.”


 Yesterday, Dec. 18, 2008, the British House of Lords held a two and a half hour debate about recent developments in India. Baroness Caroline Cox, whom aicc hosted during a fact finding trip in early November, initiated the debate and several peers spoke. John Montagu, Earl of Sandwich, said, “Patnaik, is a personal friend of mine from Delhi in the 1960s…But I have to tell Naveen that, from what I have read, neither his Government nor the Union Government in Delhi have taken sufficient action to find the perpetrators of this massacre or to protect its victims still in camps.” Excerpts of the debate are available at: http://indianchristians.in/news/content/view/2660/47/.


On Dec. 10, 2008, the United States Congressional Task Force on International Religious Freedom held a briefing titled, "The Threat Religious Extremism Poses to Democracy and Security in India: Focus on Orissa." Witnesses included Vishal Arora, an independent Indian journalist; Dr. Angana Chatterji, Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at California Institute of Integral Studies; Angela Wu, International Director at The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty; Sophie Richardson, Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch's Asia Division; and Joannella Morales with the State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom. The aicc briefed two of the panelists during their recent visits to India.


From Dec. 9-12, 2008, aicc coordinated briefings for a delegation of European Union representatives by Orissa’s non-governmental organisations, advocates, and both Christian and non-Christian community leaders. The delegation included officers from the embassies of Finland, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, and United Kingdom.  Despite public assurances by Indian authorities that the rule of law has returned to Orissa, both the central and state government advised the delegation not to visit the two most affected districts: Kandhamal and Gajapati. The reason given was "the prevailing law and order situation". This meant the delegation was effectively prevented from observing the current condition of government-run relief camps and victims.


D’souza said, “We are hopeful that our great democracy can resolve these issues by itself, but at the same time we welcome the interest of nations friendly to India and citizens of goodwill from across the world who believe in human rights and religious freedom.”


According to aicc leaders and Indian media reports, there are still 8,000+ in government-run relief camps and victims don’t have adequate food and medical care. On Dec. 1, Chief Minister Patnaik told the Orissa state assembly that 4,215 houses and 252 churches or prayer halls were destroyed. The state government issued compensation checks to a few of the families who lost loved ones or houses. Fast track courts have not been started. The aicc has reliable reports that 118 people died in the violence. In October, India’s Supreme Court ordered the state government to compensate for burned churches, but no progress is reported yet. Two state-appointed investigations are ongoing. Justice (retired) Basudev Panigrahi continues to investigate the Dec. 2007 violence, and Justice (retired) Sarat Chandra Mohapatra started an inquiry into the killing of swami Saraswati and subsequent communal violence.


The All India Christian Council (www.aiccindia.org), birthed in 1998, exists to protect and serve the Christian community, minorities, and the oppressed castes. The aicc is a coalition of thousands of Indian denominations, organizations, and lay leaders.

 

For more information, contact:

Dr. John Dayal, aicc Secretary General

catholicunion@gmail.com

+91-9811021072

 

Sam Paul, aicc National Secretary of Public Affairs

sam@christiancouncil.in

+91-9989697778

+91-40-2786-8908

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Prof Guptara Human Rights Award for John Dayal

GENEVA, SECEMBER 12, 2008
Dr John Dayal has won the Maanav Adhikaar Paaritaushik (Human Dignity Award) of Rupees One Lakh in memory of Professor M. M. Guptara.

Dr Dayal has spent his life in investigating, and then helping individual cases of human rights abuse, as well as struggling against structural human rights abuse aimed at whole groups (such as Dalits, Muslims and Christians), and fighting organised human rights abuse - for example in Vadodara and in Orissa.

At a time in our nation's history when we have been struck down from the heights by the current global crisis as well as by the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, it is important not only to celebrate the strengths and beauties of the various cultures in our country, but also to recognise individual efforts to cleanse our country of its evils.

"Over several decades, and at the cost of his own health and finances, Dr Dayal has helped people regardless of ethnicity, gender, economic status, religion or any other criterion. That is something surely worth celebrating," said Professor Prabhu Guptara.Recognising that the award is only a token, the Guptara family deeply appreciates Dr. Dayal's lifetime of exceptional efforts and service to our country.

For further information contact: Professor Guptara on prabhusguptara@gmail.com OR UK Mobile: 07799.638.785

Dr John Dayal is available for interview on (Indian) mobile: +91 11 9811021072

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Christian Council tribute to Vishwanath Pratap Singh, 10th Prime Minister of India

NEW DELHI – December 4, 2008 – The leadership of the All India Christian Council (aicc) mourns the death of Mr. Vishwanath Pratap Singh, the Tenth Prime Minister of India, a friend who stood by the invisible Indian, the nation's religious minorities, and politically marginalised Dalit and lower caste communities.

Dr. Joseph D’souza, aicc President, said, “V.P. Singh ended thousands of years of disempowerment for the Other Backward Classes who constitute almost half of India's population and were deliberately kept out of the economic and political power structures. In one of the seminal political actions since India's independence in 1947, Prime Minister V.P. Singh implemented the report of the Mandal Commission in 1990. Preceding governments ignored these reforms -- which brought affirmative action to lower castes -- for fear of losing power. His bold actions unleashed the power of social justice on India's complex pluralist society.” The Commission recommended reserving 27% of jobs in the central government for Other Backward Classes who comprised 52% of the population.

Singh was too ill to speak out when the Christian community – mostly Dalits – suffered unprecedented attacks in Orissa state in December 2007 and again in August 2008, but he privately expressed his deep anguish at the ethnic and religious cleansing. Dr. John Dayal, aicc Secretary General, said, “The All India Christian Council will remember Mr. V.P. Singh as a friend of integrity whom it could call upon for support and advice in its hour of need. We will miss him.”

Singh died on Nov. 27, 2008, after battling a kidney ailment for about twelve years, according to press reports. He was 77 years old. On Nov. 29, 2008, he was cremated at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati rivers as per Hindu tradition. Terrorist attacks in Mumbai overshadowed the death of Singh in the press, but Indian media reports called him an “anti-corruption crusader” and a “messiah of social justice” and pointed out that he headed one of the country’s first coalition governments.

Dr. Dayal, who knew Mr Singh personally over thirty years, recalled a man who marched the streets of New Delhi in January 1999. “He bravely led a massive civil society protest when a Bajrang Dal mob burnt alive Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his sons in Orissa. Since that day, Singh was often the key speaker at rallies and seminars on the protection of minority rights and freedom of faith organised by the aicc. He followed in the noble tradition of Mahatma Phule, a famous Dalit leader, and B.R. Ambedkar, the Dalit author of India’s Constitution – both whom he deeply respected and admired and who defended human rights for all.”Dayal remembered Singh as one of India’s most honest and transparent politicians in recent history, almost ascetic and spartan in public and private life. “He lived in the midst of the often murky political processes, yet Singh maintained a humane persona of an artist and a poet,” said Dayal.

Singh's lasting contribution to secular and non-sectarian democracy in India is the empowerment of an entire generation of political leaders. It is notable that, during the Mandal political reforms which Singh enacted, a backward community leader named Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav became Chief Minister of Bihar state. Mr. Yadav stopped Mr. Lal Krishna Advani's bloodstained march in 1990 to tear down a famous mosque by arresting him. It showed India that, given the political will and police cooperation, it was possible to stem the seemingly unstoppable movement of Hindutva. In the decade after he held office as Prime Minister, the politicians Singh inspired acted repeatedly to halt destructive campaigns of ultra-nationalist Hindu groups.

The All India Christian Council (www.aiccindia.org), birthed in 1998, exists to protect and serve the Christian community, minorities, and the oppressed castes. The aicc is a coalition of thousands of Indian denominations, organizations, and lay leaders.# # #

Monday, December 1, 2008

All India Christian Council Statement on Mumbai Terrorism

HYDERABAD – December 2, 2008 – The leadership and members of the All India Christian Council (aicc) stand in solidarity with their fellow Indian citizens and the people of the many nations affected by the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Dr. John Dayal, aicc Secretary General, said, “No cause, however urgent or great, can explain or excuse such wanton bloodshed of innocents. We pray for peace to the families of the dead and for healing of the injured. The common trauma during three days of unfolding tragedy brought various nationalities, communities, and faiths closer together in a shared pain. Among the victims were Hindus and Muslims, Jews and Christians, Parsees and Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains --- not that people of compassion ever needed evidence that thoughtless violence impacts each one of our lives.”
The aicc also joins in the salute to the brave soldiers, firemen, and many unsung civilians who risked their lives so that others could live and the siege of a metropolis could end.
Terrorism of this magnitude perhaps cannot be foreseen or prevented, even though political will, administrative alacrity, adequately equipped military forces, and an informed citizenry can help minimize the death toll. The repeated bomb explosions and other manifestations of terrorism in India in recent months unfortunately expose a nation unprepared.
Dr. Joseph D’souza said, “This is an opportunity to take an incisive look at organizations and groups -- religious, political or ideological -- which target innocent people. This is especially true for common targets: religious minorities. Bomb blasts in Malegaon city and other places targeted Muslims. In Assam state, other groups were victims. Many bomb blasts targeted the general population. India, of course, cannot forget that in Orissa more than a hundred people died, thousands were injured, and tens of thousands rendered homeless. These victims were Christians, most of them Dalits or Tribals, targeted in a senseless but well-orchestrated ethnic cleansing.”
Dr. Dayal said, “The aicc expresses the gratitude of the Christian community to Indian civil society, which stood by it even as the civil administration of Orissa and the Center failed entirely in August and allowed the violence to continue for three months.”
The aftermath of the Mumbai terror attack offers a rare opportunity to express our common human identity and heritage – of peace and love. The aicc commits itself towards working for this task and invites the collaboration and cooperation of all religious and social groups to heal the wounds of the nation.
Dr. D’souza said, “Especially for India, this is also an opportunity for introspection as we respond. A people’s group or faith must not be profiled or singled out for harassment, nor should knee-jerk reactions lead to draconian laws that will erode the democratic foundations which make India stand morally higher than dictatorships and failed democracies in other continents. India needs a considered political unity, modern equipment, and training for the security forces but – more than anything – a united people.”
The All India Christian Council (www.aiccindia.org), birthed in 1998, exists to protect and serve the Christian community, minorities, and the oppressed castes. The aicc is a coalition of thousands of Indian denominations, organizations, and lay leaders

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Three -month update on Orissa violence aftermath

All India Christian Council Press release

Three months after start of India’s unprecedented anti-Christian violence
118 Christian deaths in aicc list of reliable reports
Thousands will face Christmas in relief camps or hiding in forests


HYDERABAD – Nov. 25, 2008: Sparked by the murder of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati on August 23, 2008, anti-Christian violence swept through the eastern state of Orissa during a bandh (strike) on August 25, 2008 and continued for almost two months. Today about 10,000 Christians – mostly Dalits and a few tribals – languish in state-run relief camps and are afraid to return home due to continuing threats by Hindu extremists. Maoist militants claimed responsibility for the swami’s murder, but rightwing Hindu groups blamed Christians and attacked Christians in 14 of 30 districts.

Today the All India Christian Council (aicc) announced it has reliable reports of 118 murdered Christians. Names, locations, and more details are available for 91; the remaining 27 are confirmed by reliable sources but bodies haven’t been identified. Previously, the confirmed death toll was 60 people. However, a fact finding report by an Indian political party estimated 500 deaths after interviews revealed many bodies were not recovered by authorities and some were cremated or buried clandestinely by attackers.

Dr. John Dayal, aicc Secretary General, said, “For thousands of displaced Dalit and tribal Christians in Kandhamal District, this will be their second Christmas spent in relief camps or hiding in the forests. Children couldn’t go to school for much of the year and their parents were unable to find steady work. Threats and coercion against Christian leaders continues unrestrained. We pray for peace and restoration of the rule of law, but the local Christian community is understandably pessimistic.” Hindu extremists targeted Christians in Kandhamal District between Dec. 24, 2007-Jan. 2, 2008.

Rev. P.R. Parichha, aicc Orissa chapter president, said, “Of the 54,000 displaced Christians, about 24,000 victims were in 14 government relief camps until some camps were closed and victims asked to return to their villages. However, due to ongoing threats of attacks and forced conversions, most victims fled to private relief camps in major cities of Orissa or bordering states. Many will never return home.” The aicc has provided blankets and other household items to thousands of victims in both private and government relief camps.

Dr. Joseph D’souza, aicc President, said, “Greater than the tragedy of violent attacks on innocent Christians is the ongoing travesty of justice in Orissa, Karnataka, and other states across India. We have not seen any ringleaders punished, and both the state and central government refuse to prosecute rightwing Hindu ultra-nationalists who incite violence against minorities. This impunity is disgraceful for the world’s largest democracy.”

The aicc hosted a fact finding visit by Baroness Caroline Cox of Queensbury in Greater London, a member of the British House of Lords, from Oct. 30-Nov. 4, 2008. She initiated a debate on India’s anti-Christian violence in the United Kingdom Parliament on Monday, Nov. 17, 2008. Read the transcript here: http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.com/pa/ld200708/ldhansrd/text/81117-0001.htm#0811175000016. She is also Chief Executive of HART (Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust). Read her report here: http://indianchristians.in/news/images/resources/pdf/2008_HART_UK_Orissa.pdf.

According to the Christian Legal Association of India, over 1,800 complaints about crimes including arson, assault, and murder were collected in the last three months. Aicc has assisted in collecting complaints from victims in relief camps. Lawyers made at least 800 of these into First Information Reports (FIRs) which are filed with police. Hundreds, including a few Christians, were arrested but most released on bail. Fast track courts, promised by the state government, are not functioning yet.

On Nov. 16, 2008, the Orissa government announced compensation ranging from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 200,000 depending on the extent of damage and whether it was a church building or a “prayer hall”. This was in response to a decision on Oct. 22, 2008 by India’s Supreme Court on Writ Petition Civil, 404 of 2008 (Archbishop Raphael Cheenath S.V.D. vs. State of Orissa & ANR). When 105 churches from 15 denominations were vandalised over Christmas 2007, the state authorities refused to assess damaged churches and assist in rebuilding them. Only houses and educational or medical institutions were eligible for compensation. The first structures damaged in the attacks, Dalit businesses, did not receive any assistance.

D’souza said, “We will carefully track the rehabilitation efforts of the state authorities, but we are deeply skeptical at this point. In the past, state assessors categorized fully damaged houses as only partially damaged or endlessly delayed monetary compensation to victims. We’re worried the promise of assistance for churches will not match the reality.”

Dayal said, “The legal status of the Kui people, classified as Scheduled Tribe by the government, and the demands of the Pano people, a Kui speaking tribe classified as Scheduled Caste or Dalit by the government, needs to be resolved. These are critical identity issues exploited by rightwing Hindu leaders in the region.”

Christian leaders are concerned over the progress of investigations by two state-appointed “commissions”. Each is comprised of a single retired Orissa High Court judge. Basudev Panigrahi continues to investigate the Dec. 2007 violence, and Sarat Chandra Mohapatra started an inquiry into the killing of swami Saraswati and subsequent communal violence. At the national level, the National Commission for Minorities issued a report in mid-September. India’s National Human Rights Commission sent an investigative team to Kandhamal, Orissa, from Nov. 12-18, 2008, although a public report is not expected.

Since Aug. 23, 2008, the aicc recorded: 315 villages damaged, 4,640 Christian houses burnt, 54,000 Christians homeless, at least 6 pastors and one Roman Catholic priest killed, 10 priests/pastors/nuns seriously injured, estimated 18,000 Christians injured, at least two women (including a nun) raped, 149 churches destroyed, 13 Christian schools and colleges damaged. Attacks mostly stopped in mid-October, but sporadic violence continues. On Nov. 12, 2008, local aicc leaders said a Catholic church was attacked in G. Udayagiri by a mob of about 200 people. Yesterday, Nov. 24, 2008, police imposed Section 144 in Daringbadi to prevent protests planned by a tribal leader with ties to anti-Christian attacks. Indian Penal Code Section 144 prohibits more than four people from gathering.


For more information, contact:
Sam Paul, aicc National Secretary of Public Affairs
sam@christiancouncil.in
+91-9989697778
+91-40-2786-8908


The All India Christian Council (www.christiancouncil.in), birthed in 1998, exists to protect and serve the Christian community, minorities, and the oppressed castes. The aicc is a coalition of thousands of Indian denominations, organizations, and lay leaders.

# # #

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Memo to the Indian President

Memorandum to the Honourable The President of India
Through
Honourable the Governors of Punjab, Haryana
and the Administrator of Chandigarh

Chandigarh, November 20, 2008

Respected President

Greetings from the Christians of Chandigarh and surrounding districts of Punjab and Haryana who marched through the streets of Chandigarh this morning in a peaceful rally to present this Memorandum to you as Head of State and Defender of the Constitution.

1. We seek your urgent intervention to ensure security and justice for our community in Orissa and Karnataka, the worst hit in the fundamentalist violence through several months of the year 2008. Over 50,000 Christian men, women and children of Kandhamal fear they will celebrate Christmas 2008 as refugees hiding for their lives in the forests of Kandhamal district in Orissa, in ill-kept refugee camps in the state or as internally displaced persons seeking safety and a livelihood in various cities of the country. They remain hounded by memories of Christmas 2007 which 1,000 of them spent in the forests after the first attacks. The situation in Orissa, Karnataka Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh continues to be terrible despite assurances by Central and state governments.
2. In Orissa and other states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata party, the police forces and the subordinate criminal justice apparatus had been heavily infiltrated by the communal ideology of the Sangh Parivar. The result was that the police was a mute bystander and often an active participant in attacks on Christian houses of worship and gatherings, and assaults on priests. This state of impunity must end There also have been many cases of sexual violence. Cases were often not registered, and tragically, it was the victim Christians who ended up facing the wrath of the government. A hate campaign continues unabated in the media and on the streets, targeting Christians and their faith, questioning their patriotism and stigmatizing their religious personnel.
3. The All India Christian Council has recorded the following: the states of Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttaranchal have been severely affected. In Orissa, over 4,500 houses have been burnt and 300 villages purged of all Christians in the worst case of “ethnic cleansing” in Independent India. Over 50,000 are homeless, ten thousand of them in government camps. We have the names of Sixty dead and close to Ninety men are still reported missing and may be dead in the forest. Independent probes have spoken of clandestine disposal of bodies. School children are without education, babies without infant food, and families without warm clothes in the cold hill tract.
4. We must caution that while the situation was comparatively peaceful in Punjab and Haryana, reports had started coming in of communal gangs terrorizing Home Churches and small congregations in small towns.
5. The Union and State governments must immediately crack down on hate campaigns and ensure justice. The Anti Communal Violence Bill, which was initially rejected by civil society because it was lopsided, must be immediately revised and brought into force, by an Ordinance if necessary after consulting all minority communities, the Memorandum said.
6. The Centre must use Constitutional provisions to ensure that State governments implement guarantees of freedom of faith and protection of the homes, places of worship, and livelihood the religious minorities. At present, criminal gangs are roaming free. Central forces that have been sent to Orissa, for instance, have not been able to rescue those in the forests for want of effective coordination with the state machinery.
7. There is also little justice in the relief, rehabilitation and compensation procedures. The victims of Orissa have been given a pittance. Even the victims of December 2007 violence have not been able to build their houses. Churches, burnt down by communal forces, must be rebuilt at State expense. The governments and the aggressors cannot evade their culpability and responsibility. The Church cannot continue to rebuild places of worship only to see them demolished and burnt by criminal gangs of a particular ideology, the Memorandum said.
8. We re-affirm the demand by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, the National Council of Churches in India and the All India Christian Council that the Central Bureau of Investigation probe major cases, including that of the rape of a Catholic Nun in Kandhamal in August 2008.
9. Justice to the Christian community cannot be complete without accepting the just demands of the Dalit Christians for Scheduled Caste Status at par with their brethren in the Sikh, Buddhist and Hindu faiths, the Memorandum said. The sixty year old struggle for a fair deal, supported by several National Commissions, appeals to the basic tenets of Equality and Affirmative Action enshrined in the Constitution of India, the Memorandum added.
Thank you
Sincerely
On behalf of the Rally of thousands of Christians of Chandigarh and nearby districts of Punjab and Haryana
Signed by
Fr Thomas, Administrator, Catholic Diocese of Shimla-Chandigarh
Dr John Dayal, Member, national Integration Council and Secretary Gen4eral, All India Christian Council
Dr Sam Paul, National Secretary, All India Christian Council

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Focus on plight of Women and Children in Kandhamal, Orissa

AIDWA REPORT ORISSA NOVEMBER 2008

[JOHN DAYAL’S NOTE: The following is the report of the delegation of the All India Democratic Women’s Association, the Women’s wing of the Communist Party of India Marxist, which visited Orissa including Kandhamal earlier in November 2008, met with the victims and later also met with the Orissa Chief Minister, Mr. Naveen Pattnaik.]

4000 houses damaged, burnt and broken down; innumerable churches and Christian prayer halls destroyed; many shops belonging to Christians reduced to rubble; 35 persons killed in rioting; two women, a nun and a minor girl, gang-raped. And all this in a district, Kandhamal, Orissa with a population of about six and a half lakhs of whom about one and half lakhs are Christians.

An Aidwa delegation comprising of Shyamali Gupta (Working President), Sudha Sundararaman (General Secretary), Tapasi Praharaj and Pushpa Das (President and Secretary of the Orissa State unit of AIDWA) and myself visited Kandhamal District of Orissa on the 1st and 2nd of November, 2008. The district had been completely out of bounds to all organizations except some intrepid media persons from the third week of September till the 6th of October.

Even two months after the gory incidents of loot, killing and mayhem that followed the horrific killing of Lakhmanananda Saraswati of the VHP and four of his colleagues that included one woman, this most beautiful region of forests, mountains, streams and birds remained a place of fear, mistrust and terrible scars.

Our delegation visited some of the camps to which those whose homes were burnt and damaged fled. At the peak of the violence, there were more than a dozen camps opened and run by the State Govt. sheltering about 25, 000 inmates. In addition, camps have been opened by Christian organizations in the area and in Bhubaneswar and many of the victims have also taken shelter with relatives elsewhere or migrated to other states. The killing occurred on 23rd August and, despite the fact that Maoist leaders publicly announced that they were responsible; VHP and other Sangh Parivar leaders incited their followers to attack Christians to take revenge. The administration explains its very delayed response to the fact that it was overtaken by the events. But this cannot be totally acceptable. After the attacks on Christians that occurred in the district around Christmas, 2007, there should have been many more preventive measures taken. The fact that Orissa has a BJD-BJP Government is also responsible for the fact that the Sangh Parivar has been given a fairly free hand to stoke enmity and hatred against the Christian population of the area.

The camp our delegation visited was at Tikabali situated in the Govt. High School. The local administration was quite co-operative and did not interfere with our interaction with the people in the camp. The number of people has halved to about 750. Many have gone back to their villages and others have gone to other places in search of work. So far, no one who has returned home has come back because of intimidation or attacks. We spoke to many of the families still in the camps. Most of them do visit their villages during the day a few times every week. Some have fields just outside their villages that they are tending, others have land in the villages. Their stories are mixed. Some say that they do not feel threatened by their old neighbours but that ‘outside forces’ are not allowing their neighbours to take them back; others say that they are being asked to become Hindus before they will be allowed home and still others say that they are fearful of going home.

We met the camp secretary, Bikram Pradhan, from Kottadi village of Gardingia Block, one of the badly affected regions. He said that they had registered group FIRs those who had burnt their homes who were all people known to them. Now they were registering individual FIRs also. He made a very significant point that only a small section of those belonging to the majority community attacked them and many of their neighbours had helped them by storing their possessions, safeguarding their cattle, and even by trying to put out the flames. These deeds did not, however, go unpunished. He said that Siddheshwar Pradhan who was trying to help them was actually burnt to death. (This has been corroborated by the district administration). The kind of hatred that has been stoked is illustrated by what Monoranjan Digal from Budkinaju said – a Christian belonging to Santhaguda village could not be buried there even after the intervention of the BDO and had finally to be buried near the camp.

Living in camps for so long and not knowing when they will be able to return to a normal life has created many problems. Priya Kumari Digal, from Behra village, is a young girl doing her + 2. She said that in her village, the entire majority community of about 300 people turned against the 45 Christian families forced them to flee. She said that while younger children were being taught within the camp, but older students like herself could not pursue their studies without books and teachers. She was worried as to how she would prepare for the exams which were due in December. Another young blind girl, Jhujhunrani, who was studying in the IInd year was also worried – all her books, including those in Braille, had been burnt.

Priyotima Digal also from Behra village, who was a member of the SHG group called Jeevan Jyoti said that the grain meant for mid-day meals prepared by her group was stored in her home and had been destroyed. Other SHG members said that money that they had withdrawn from the banks or collected from their members had also been lost and they were worried that the banks would initiate recovery proceedings. The inmates also complained about the fact that they had received only one set of clothing and also had no soap, oil etc. They were very positive to our suggestion that NREGA works could be started near the camp

Later, our delegation members also met the Pradhanacharya, Jagabandhu Das, of Lakhmanananda Saraswati’s ashram at Chhakkapar. Very young boys live and study here and we saw many of them being ordered to perform menial tasks like sweeping, swabbing, washing clothes, cutting vegetables etc. by men in khaki shorts. The Pradhanacharya was told that our organization was deeply concerned about the restoration of peace and also about the terrible attacks that had taken place. He was quite cold-blooded in his response and said that the attacks were a ‘natural reaction’ to the murders of August 23rd and that the Christians had been involved in these one way or the other and that the victims could return to their villages only if they accepted ‘certain conditions’ and withdrew all cases.


After this, we met the Collector, Krishan Kumar and the SDM, Vinay Krishan at the District Headquarter, Phulbani. He had a detailed discussion with us and agreed to provide the camp inmates with books and other necessities. He said that a lot of effort was being made to see that those going back were not only safe but started to become integrated into their villages again. He said they were starting NREGA in every village and would see that all those returning from the camps got jobs irrespective of registration or lack of Job Cards. They would be paid in cash since most of them had lost their passbooks etc. Brick-making would also be started so that when the reconstruction of burnt homes began, bricks would be available. He also said that they would try to create smaller camps nearer the villages of the inmates so that they could look after their fields and also be near their homes and former neighbours.

We went to the Balliguda Sub-division the next morning. On the way we passed many villages and small market-places where there was much evidence of terrible destruction. There were still ashes, burnt books and burnt clothes lying in front of many of the homes. We also passed through K. Nuagan where the large Mission building and school buildings stood desolate and desecrated. This was the place that had seen the public sexual assault on Sister Meena. There is a large camp here with more than 2000 victims.

The camp in Balliguda has been wound up and, according to the sub collector, all the former inmates have gone back to their villages. We visited one of these villages, Mediakia to which 27 families had returned. We were able to speak to most of these people and also saw for ourselves that a NREGA worksite had been started and most of them were getting work on it. Poor people belonging to the majority community were also getting work but they were working at another part of the site. All the Christians in the villages had suffered tremendous damage during the attacks. Many had also lost their animals though some also said that their neighbours had managed to save a few. All of them had started receiving compensation for re-building their homes. We were able to talk to them at length and they told us that they were not feeling threatened at the moment.

We also met some of the tribal men who were working at another part of the work-site. They were not very forthcoming with information about the attacks but did say that they were sure that they would not be repeated. They said many peace-meetings were being held. They were also very happy that the NREGA work had started and said that if this was continued throughout the year, it would have a very positive impact. Many of them were forced to go as far away as Kerala to find work. None of them voiced any anger against their Christian neighbours.

On the 3rd, we met the Chief Minister of Orissa and gave him our memorandum. As far as the problems of the victims in camps were concerned, he was very positive and issued some orders (about text-books, clothes etc.) in our presence. He also assured us that he would not spare the communal elements responsible for the attacks. When we requested him to accede to Sister Meena’s demand for a CBI enquiry into the atrocities and gang-rape that she had suffered, he expressed his inability to do so but said that he was committed to ensuring justice. 5 policemen had been suspended and 9 persons arrested and he was willing for the investigations being carried out by his officers in any place chosen by Sister Meena.

Kandhamal has many lessons to be learnt. The devious and hateful ways in which religion is being used by the Sangh Parivar to divide the poorest of the poor and to incite violent attacks on very vulnerable members of minority communities have created a very dangerous situation in a very sensitive part of our country. Other religious forces also work in a way that accentuate religious divides and this has exacerbated the problem here. Today, the Maoists are also fishing in these very troubled waters.

The lesson to be learned is two-fold: the State cannot withdraw from its responsibilities as far as the providing of education and livelihood opportunities is concerned and it cannot afford to give any space and opportunity to the Sangh Parivar to incite violence and hatred in the name of religion.

Subhashini Ali, President, AIDWA

Monday, November 10, 2008

Bishops call Orissa CM's bluff

Text of letter by the Bishops of Orissa to the Chief Minister on 10th November 2008
Shri Naveen Pattnaik
Hon’ble Chief Minister
Government of Orissa
Bhubaneswar, Orissa.
Date: 10th November 2008.

Respected Sir,

First of all we want to convey to you our sincere thanks and appreciation for giving us this appointment to meet you.

Further we want to place before you the following points for your kind consideration and necessary action on an emergency basis.

1. The Exodus of Christians from Kandhamal District: There is considerable reduction of refugees in Relief Camps (from 24,000 to 11,000). The claim that those who leave the relief camps are going back to their own villages and settling down in their homes is not true. Most of them have migrated to relief camps in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Jhanla, Berhampur and also settled down in rented houses and in the homes of relations, friends, acquaintances etc. It is estimated that 10,000 to 15,000 Christians of Kandhamal district are living outside the district.

A large number of Christians of Kandhamal district have gone to Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat etc. People in the relief camps of the costal belts, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur etc. want to return to their villages, but are afraid because of the reasons (a) They may be attacked on the way or in their own villages (b) They are forced to become Hindus under pain of death or loss of properties. They are told to become Hindus or leave the village, the district or even India (c) Many are unwilling to return because the criminals are still at large and moving about with swords, guns, weapons etc. as in Kothingia/Tiangia of Raikia block and Sarangodo block.
The Christians who have returned to their own villages and homes are forcibly converted to Hinduism; they are forced to accept Hindu Samskaras under oath and under pain of divine punishment. Their movements and meeting with people are restricted by the fanatics for instance in Padangi, Sankarakhol.
2. Acts of injustices against Christians.
a) Christians are chased away from their homes and villages.

b) Even though the State Govt. had promised to allot land to the landless (after the last attack) it has not yet been done. Many do not get money for the gutted down houses or damaged houses because the administration applies rules absolutely and strictly to the Christians in such a way that the landless will not get allotment of land or they even loose what they have.

c) A man was not allowed to be buried in the village as he did not become a Hindu in village Sarthaguda of Tikabali block.

d) Christians are not allowed to harvest the paddy from their own fields in many Gram Panchayats if they do not become Hindus.

3. Looting of houses, Churches & Religious Houses.: As the people had fled out of threat and fear criminals are looting the homes, churches, religious houses, institutions and destroying/burning whatever is left over.

4. Non Acceptance of FIRs: FIRs are not accepted in Daringabadi and Sarangoda Police Stations.

5. Attack on Christians is not an Ethnic Conflict: Hindu Fundamentalist groups have been trying to name the communal violence as an Ethnic Conflict between the Tribals and the Pano Christians. A cursory look at facts reveals that this conflict is a calculated and pre-planned master plan to wipe out Christianity from Kandhamal district, Orissa, in order to realize the hidden agenda of Sangh Parivar of establishing a Hindu Nation. Therefore to keep the hidden agenda a secret they have tried to manipulate the facts:

- That the victims of attack were Christians

-That not only Panos but Christian Tribals also were killed, their homes and properties burned, destroyed and looted (list attached).

6 Fast Tract Court: We are happy that the state Govt. has decided to establish FTC at Kandhamal for expeditious trial of cases relating to communal violence. Looking at the geographical area it is suggested that the said Fast Tract Court may be set up at G. Udaygiri as it is centrally located to all the villages that have been affected by violence. Further it is requested that the Judge of the FTC should be from any other religion other than from Christian or Hindu Religion.

7. Request the presence of Central Forces in Kandhamal Dist: The Hate campaign beginning from 23rd August 2008 has been targeted to polarize religious groups and will affect peace process during restoration stages till the Parliament & Assembly Elections in Orissa are over. The Christian victims now in relief camps and those who have taken distress departure from Kandhamal are afraid of further attacks as the State Police are few and who even cannot defend themselves and their outposts. Hence we request that the presence of Central Forces be extended till the Parliament and Assembly Elections in Orissa are over.

8. Churches be built/repaired by 1st week of December 2008: This will allow Christmas spiritual preparations to begin and spiritual traditions to be observed. This will also help confidence building among the congregations and bury the past quietly as they approach Christmas 2008.

Thanking You
Yours faithfully

Dr. Raphael Cheenath, Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar
Dr. T. Thiruthalil, Bishop of Balasore
Dr. Sarat Nayak, Bishop of Berhampur

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Can India learn a lesson in Obama coalition and victory

5 November 08

Senator Barak Husain Obama’s victory in the US presidential elections holds hope, and a lesson, for an India still coming to grips with its own mufti cultural, multi ethnic, mufti linguistic and multi religious identity.

The US, like India, is a majority of minorities. The supremacy of an elite upper caste – racial or religious – cannot last forever. As Obama said, it is not America’s wealth, now discredited, or its military night, defeated in Vietnam, for instance, that make it great, but the commitment of it many peoples to commit themselves to the ideals of the founding fathers for a land of hope, equality, liberty, democracy and opportunity.

Mahatma Phule, Jawaharlal Nehru and Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, Mahatma Gandhi too had dreamt of this for an India where the governments would be of the people, by the people, for the people -- from Dalits including Dalit Christians, Tribals, landless farmers all the way to the megapolises of New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Calcutta and Hyderabad.

There are lessons both for the BJP and the Congress and for other political parties that they need to build grand coalitions of all people, instead of appeasing majority communities, or upper middle class elite, or religious fundamentalists.

We congratulate US President elect Obama and hope that in his tenure relations between India and the US will improve, that global pace will prevail, that global warming will be fought, that race relations will improve in US, and freedom of faith will strengthen in India, and that all minorities everywhere will come into their own in the promise of God.

John Dayal
Secretary General, All India Christian Council
Member, National Integration Council

Monday, November 3, 2008

Orissa Christian toll may exceed 500, says new study

Marxist-Leninist fact-finding report says 500 Christians killed in Orissa in August-September 2008 pogrom, cites government officer

[Marxism] MLIN [Nov.-Dec.08]
ML International Newsletter
November-December 2008
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation international team
*********************************************************************** Liberation Magazine, November, 2008.
Websites: [mlint.wordpress.com] and [www.cpiml.org]
Emails: [cpiml_elo@yahoo.com] and [cpimllib@gmail.com]
Orissa Pogrom
Fact-Finding Report on Kandhamal Situation
A Communist Party of India [CPI (ML)] fact-finding team visited Orissa’s Kandhamal District on 15-16 October, 2008. The team visited affected villages and relief camps, after facing interrogation by the Orissa Police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). The team also met District Magistrate (DM) and various police officials of Kandhamal district. Below is a report by team member J P Minz.

1. The District Magistrate’s (DM) Statement: The DM told us that Kandhamal had been peaceful for the preceding ten days. Whereas there used to be fifteen relief camps, now only seven were operational, having 12,641 people. According to him, breakfast, meals, supplementary food meant for children, and iron and calcium tablets for pregnant women are available in these camps; a doctor is available round the clock; books are available for children and there are regular reading sessions. Blankets, sarees, buckets and mugs and similar essentials have also been provided.

2. Conditions at the Relief Camps: Our team visited Phulbani, Tikabali, Ji Udaygiri and Rakiya relief camps and found that the inmates of the camp are living in extremely bad conditions. In the name of breakfast they get only fifty grams of chura (beaten rice) and rice-dal for meals, which is not enough to satisfy the needs of hunger and nutrition. In the name of supplementary food, the children are occasionally given biscuits. Bathing soaps have been distributed just once in the camps. The doctors do visit but patients are told that there is no medicine. There is no arrangement for pregnant women. The camp inmates sleep on plastic mats on the ground. They have to defecate in the open, which apart from being unhygienic also puts them in danger. One inmate of Ji Udaygiri camp, we were told, was killed when he had gone to defecate.

3. Role of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal: The victims in all the relief camps unanimously told the fact finding team that it is the VHP and Bajrang Dal cadres who have sowed the seeds of communal division in the villages. They used to organize meetings of the Kandha tribals and incite them to attack the Christian hamlets and also provided funds for doing this.

4. Role of the Police and Administration: The anti-Christian riots in Kandhamal started on the day of the bandh called by VHP after the murder of Swami Lakshmananad, and these riots continued for over a month. In the communal fire two hundred Christian villages and 127 Church and prayer halls were either destroyed or burnt. Apart from this, schools, hospitals, hostels and convents also have been damaged. The incidents of killings, rape and loot also were carried out in addition to former incidents. The shocking fact is that all these incidents took place in full view of police and the police remained mute spectators.



The official figure for deaths has been reported to be 31, however, a senior government official on the condition of anonymity informed that he himself consigned two hundred dead bodies - found from the jungle - to flames after getting them collected in a tractor. As per his estimates based on the intensity and pace of killings the number of those killed is over five hundred.

5. Atmosphere of Terror: The Christians continue to experience great terror. The Sangh outfits are campaigning for sending back the CRPF and the Nikhil Utkal Kui community is threatening to launch an armed movement. Riot-victims are frightened to go back to their villages because they have been threatened that if they return they will be hacked into pieces. The rioters are also proclaiming that only Hindu converts will be allowed to return. On the other hand, those in charge of the relief camps are pressurizing the riot victims to return to their villages saying that the life has returned to normalcy and peace has returned.
Conclusions:1. This violence was a pre-planned anti-Christian communal assault, and in no way was it a ‘clash’ between adivasi (tribals) and dalits.

2. This violence which had full support from the Biju Janta Dal Government was planned and executed by VHP and Bajrang Dal.
3. The Sangh’s propaganda about ‘indiscriminate religious conversion’ is a far cry from facts, as the Christian population of Orissa is only 2.5 per cent of the total population. It is to be noted that Christian missionaries began working in Orissa 150 years back.
4. Dalits have far less proportion of land in comparison to the Kandha tribals. In Kandhamal 90 per cent land is government land, 5.5 percent belongs to tribals and rest 4.5 per cent belongs to Dalits, OBC and Oriya (businessmen). There is not much difference in the economic conditions of the tribals and the dalits. The dalits are very slightly better off as they engage in small businesses.
Our Demands:
1. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal (BD) should be banned.2. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik responsible for the violence should tender his resignation immediately
3. The accused for the riots be immediately arrested.
4. The Orissa Govt. must reconstruct all houses, churches, schools, hostels, hospitals and other social-religious structures demolished during the violence and for other damages adequate compensation be granted after a proper survey
5. The relief camps be run for another six months and proper civic arrangements for food, medicine and sanitation be made in these camps.
6. Arrangements be made for registering First Information Reports (FIRs) related to the communal violence at all police stations.
7. Peace process be initiated and guarantees be made for reopening and running of schools, hospitals and other institutes run by the Christian missionaries.
Orissa Pogrom
United Protests: South Orissa Bandh by CPI (ML) and Other Parties
- Liberation, November, 2008.
On 13th October CPI (ML) Liberation along with four other parties – CPI (ML) New Democracy (ND), Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) [CPI (ML)], Socialist Unity Center of India (SUCI) and Samajwadi Jan Parishad held a successful bandh in five districts of South Orissa - Kandhamal, Rayagada, Gajapati, Koraput and Ganjam – against the carnage in Kandhamal, the complicity of the Navin Patnaik Government and the criminal inaction of the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre. The bandh was total in the five districts and marked by the spontaneous participation of people. Around 10, 000 people actively participated in Liberation’s initiatives to make the bandh a success in Rayagada; 1200 in Gajapati.

Holding that the ruling BJD as well as Congress which is in power at the Centre too have blood on their hands because of their hands-off approach towards the Sangh Parivar mobs, the CPI (ML) had declined to join a joint protest announced by Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI (M)] with Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Congress party in the state.
In Bhubaneswar, trains were stopped and the National Highway blocked by 200 Liberation activists. Comrade Tirupati Gomango held a rally of around 8000 people at Gunupur. The bandh sent out a stern political message rejecting the communal violence against thousands of Christians by the Sangh outfits and condemning the forces in power which are allowing the violence to take place unhindered.
CPI (ML) Liberation’s Nation Wide Protests
On October 3, CPI (ML) held nation-wide protests demanding prosecution of Chief Ministers of Orissa and Karnataka for allowing saffron mobs to indulge in an anti-Christian pogrom; demanding a ban on the Sangh outfits guilty of communal violence and protesting against the UPA Government’s refusal to take stern action against the communal killers. A memorandum to the President of India was submitted from all over the country. The memorandum, raising all the above issues and demands, also noted that the Sangh’s accusations of ‘forced conversion’ was actually serving to cover up their own acts of forcing adivasis and Christians to convert to Hinduism. Conversion from Hinduism has largely been an act of rebellion by the oppressed castes against the caste-ridden Hindu fold, noted the memo, and “the current wave of violence is therefore also an attempt to terrorise the Dalits and other oppressed social groups for their rebellion – and is therefore acontinuation of social oppression in another form.” The acts of humiliation of Christians that have come to light – raping, parading naked, and forcing to eat excreta as ‘purification’ ritual – are all reminiscent of the atrocities against Dalits. The party also noted the increasing incidents of communal violence in Dhule (Maharashtra) and Adilabad (Andhra Pradesh), in which the minority community bore the brunt of the attacks. Also, it condemned the Tarun Gogoi Government for allowing the Bodo-Muslim clashes to take place, which had resulted in thousands of people being driven into refugee camps. In Delhi, activists of CPI (ML) gathered at Parliament Street and burnt an effigy of Navin Patnaik and Yeddyurappa, and submitted a memorandum to the President.
In Karnataka, another major centre of the ongoing communal violence, protest demonstrations were held in various places in the state, and the memorandum to the President was sent through the tahsildars in the taluks. More than hundred people protested in front of taluk office at Harapanahalli. The demo evoked much expectation in the town as a church near Harapanahalli was also attacked sometime back. Our comrades had helped in getting bail for the Christian priests, on whom false cases had been foisted in addition to the attack on their church. The demo at Gangavati was also impressive and demonstrators shouted slogans against BJP that is coming out with its true colours after assuming power in the state. The demo at HD Kote near Mysore protestors included construction labourers and All India Central Coordination of Trade Unions (AICCTU) activists.
In Jharkhand, hundreds of people marched in the capital of Ranchi. The March against Communalism, in the Sainik Bazaar campus, was led by CPI (ML) General Secretary Comrade Dipankar. The March culminated in a mass meeting at Albert Ekka Chowk, addressed by many leaders. Protest processions, effigy burning, dharnas and mass meetings were also held at various district headquarters (HQs) in Jharkhand; Bihar; Assam and Karbi Anglong; UP; W. Bengal, Tamilnadu, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, and Durg.
All India Progressive Womens Association (AIPWA) between 10-14 October, held protests and submitted a memorandum to the President of India demanding ban on the Sangh outfits Bajrang Dal and VHP responsible for assaults on Christians, and a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the rape of a nun in Orissa.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

AIDWA meeting Chief Justice of India for Central Bureau of Investigation probe into Nun's gang rape in Orissa

PRESS RELEASE
31 OCTOBER 2008

AIDWA TO MEET CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA SEEKING CBI PROBE INTO NUN’S GANG RAPE

The All India Democratic Women’s Association [AIDWA], the women’s wing of the Communist Party of India Marxist has in a compassionate letter to the Catholic Nun who was gang raped in Kandhamal, Orissa, said it would ask the Chief Justice of India to order a CBI enquiry into the assault on her.

AIDWA is the most major of a large number of national women’s organisations who have expressed deep concern at the plight of the Nun who was tortured in the anti Christian violence in Orissa which continues since it started on 24 August 20-07.

Left parties are perhaps the only political groups to have held protest demonstrations in the Kandhamal district capital Phulbani and the state capital Bhubaneswar against the anti Christian orgy of violence by Hindutva elements.

The Nun was gang raped by a Hindutva nun while police watched. She was taken away from the police and tortured again. A third time, the police abandoned her while they were coming to hospital in Bhubaneswar by bus.

The Nun said she had no faith in the Orissa police and beseeched the Supreme Court of India through her counsel for an enquiry by the federal agency, Central Bureau of Investigation. This was opposed by the state government which wants its own police to carry on the investigation. The Supreme Court rejected the appeal of the Nun. The Nun later addressed the media with the story of her ordeal.

The following is the text of the letter by Subhashini Ali, President , and Sudha Sunderaraman, General Secretary, of WIDWA sent to Dr John Dayal, secretary general, All India Christian Council, for sending to the Nun:
“Dear Sister

On behalf of all the more than one crore members of our orgnisation, the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), we extend our heartfelt support and solidarity in this extremely difficult and traumatic time. We appreciate your courage and your brave struggle for justice and would like to assure you that you are not alone. We and many, many others are with you.

After December, 2007, when the attacks on Christians, their churches, their shops and their homes started in Kandhamal, AIDWA has been protesting against these and demanding stringent action against the perpetrators. Many of our units in different parts of the country have also organized strong protests. After your recent press conference at which you spoke so movingly and with such dignity about the horrors you had not only witnessed but also been subjected to, we have sent telegrams from every state in the country to the Chief Minister of Orissa demanding that the investigation into your complaint be transferred to the CBI. We are also planning to meet the Chief Justice of India after he returns to the country to make the same request to him

We know that you are going through an extremely difficult time. Whenever it is convenient for you, we would be privileged to meet with you personally. If there is anything you would like us to do, please do not hesitate to let us know.
An AIDWA delegation, of which both of us will be part, will be visiting Kandhamal on the 1st and 2nd of November.

We are also extremely saddened by the tragic death of Father Digal. Our sincere condolences to all of you in this moment of great loss.

We are yours in solidarity,

Subhashini Ali, President and Sudha Sunderaraman, General Secretary, AIDWA”

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Assure security to depose before Justice Panigrahi Commission

FROM DR JOHN DAYAL
Plaintiff in Person
Justice Panigrahi Commission of Enquiry in the Kandhamal, Orissa violence of December 2007

To The Honourable Commission

1. I, John Dayal, Plaintiff in Person, state as follows;
2. I have been summoned by the Honourable Justice Basudeo Panigrahi Commission to appear before it in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar on 1st November 2008.
3. I have just heard that my close friend Father Bernard Digal, treasurer of the Archdiocese of Bhubaneswar, who was grievously injured in an attack on him by religious fundamentalists in Kandhamal during the August to October 2008 violence, died in hospital of complications. Those responsible for the attack are not known to have been arrested. His death has affected the community deeply, and I am troubled in my mind. Fr Bernard was himself an applicant and was to reappear before the Honourable Commission.
4. The general law and order situation in Orissa continues to be aggravating. The Honourable Chief Minister admits 10,000 persons are in government refugee camps. Unknown numbers are in forests. It will be impossible to summon witnesses I may want to cross examine, or who may want to depose for the 2007 violence. The assailants are scot free, and the few arrested may be out on bail, as happened in 2007 December violence according to depositions before the Commission in earlier hearings.
5. I have been, together with the Archbishop and Mr Radha Kant Nayak, MP, subjected of a sustained and criminal hate campaign which exceeds definitions of libel and criminal defamation. The hate campaign, which has been carried out in public dharnas by leaders of fundamentalist organisations, has also been carried out in a section of the Oriya language Press and has been widely reported in the media. A ruling political party, the BJP by its acts and deeds has given moral support to this hate campaign by visits to the dharna or agitation spot by its leaders. This has made the government complicit in the campaign against me. This has also patently created an atmosphere of hate and can, I fear and apprehend, foment violence against me in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, and other parts of Orissa.
6. In a past visit to Bhubaneswar, I had to return to Delhi from Bhubaneswar because of the hate and threat environment. I of course could not move out of Bhubaneswar, much less go to Kandhamal or other places hit by the violence.
7. Other witnesses, and past witnesses and applicants are also not in a position to depose before the commission for the same reasons and as such will not be available for examination and cross examination.
8. It is therefore averred that the environment is not conducive to my safety and security. I apprehend a serious threat to my security and to my life and limb, and to my freedom of movement.
9. The Honourable Commission and the State Government, I fear, are in no position to guarantee my safety, security and life.
10. I, therefore pray that my deposition be deferred to such future dates as and when the environment is conducive, and my security and safety is guaranteed.

For this, I shall as in duty bound, ever be grateful

John Dayal
Applicant in Person

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE ARCHBISHOP OF CUTTACK,

ARCHBISHOP RAPHAEL CHEENATH S.V.D.

1. With respect to the communal violence that began in Kandhamal district of the state of Orissa in December, 2007 the state government has appointed the Justice Basudev Panigrahi Commission of Inquiry. Similarly, with respect to the communal violence that flared up in August 2008 in different parts of Orissa, which continues unabated, the state government has appointed the Justice S.C. Mohapatra Commission of Inquiry.

2. I am profoundly distressed by the fact that the Chief Minister did not consult the victim community before deciding on the persons to head these Commissions. The very least that is expected from the state government is that it take the victim community into confidence so that the Commissions of Inquiries are headed by persons who are, in the perception of the victim community, both independent and strong willed enough to hold the officers of the state responsible. The present appointments have been made in haste disregarding the point of view of the victim communities.

3. Our experiences before the Justice Basudev Panigrahi Commission have been demoralizing to say the least. Advocates for the victim communities appeared before Justice Panigrahi and filed statements on behalf of approximately 275 victims and others. They began full-hearted participation in the inquiry despite their reservations as to the independence of the Commission. Their confidence was shaken when the second round of attacks began and they informed Justice Panigrahi that not only the Christian community but also some of the advocates representing the victims had come under the threat of assault and they therefore requested Justice Panigrahi to adjourn the hearing for two months. Justice Panigrahi refused. It became impossible for the victim community and their advocates to participate freely in the Commission. Victims were without food, houses were being burnt, people were being killed; all this was pointed out to Justice Panigrahi and a most reasonable request was made to keep the Commission in abeyance until matters settled down.

4. Not only was the request refused but the Commission is proceeding in undue haste. Some members of the victim community undoubtedly manage to attend but the leading team of lawyers and the main victims cannot attend. It is also very difficult to travel within Kandhamal to meet the victims and prepare them for the proceedings. They have been traumatized and are scared and need to be given confidence to speak out. This is especially so because the assailants are still roaming free in the villages and may, in all likelihood, attack the witnesses for deposing before the Commission. It was expected of the Commission that it would have some sensitivity in respect of witness protection to maintain the sanctity of the Commission proceedings; but this is not so. A formal order has been made but no protection on the ground is available.

5. This leads me to the conclusion that the Justice Panigrahi Commission is more interested in covering up the misdeeds of the state government and its police force whose actions have been truly shameful, rather than to identify the organisations and prominent individuals behind the fascistic attacks. The Commission wishes to produce its report in undue haste with a view to giving the Chief Minister and his officers a clean chit. In the circumstances I have no hesitation in stating that I have no faith whatsoever in the Justice Panigrahi Commission.
2

6. This view also holds good for the Justice S.C. Mohapatra Commission. I have nothing against Justice Panigrahi or Justice Mohapatra personally. But I do protest the appointment being made unilaterally without consultation with the victim community. He to has issued notice to the victim community in the middle of all this violence to file affidavits by the 15th of November, 2008. Such a formal approach displays an insensitivity to the suffering of the victims. Victims who do not know where their next meal is coming from or those who are hiding in the forests are hardly likely to be able to identify an advocate and meet the prescribed deadline. What these Commissions need is a person of dynamism like Justice Krishna Iyer with a compassionate heart and a deep social understanding of the nature of communal riots. Perhaps the state government ought to have approached Mr. Justice B.N. Srikrishna who headed the Commission of Inquiry in respect of the Bombay massacres. Such judges would indeed have inspired confidence. Sadly this is not the case. I do not have confidence that the Justice Mohapatra Commission will indeed do
justice to the victims in Orissa.

7. I am constrained to release this statement because there is, particularly of late, a distressing tendency to avoid naming and catching the culprits immediately and to waste time by appointing Commissions with pliant persons heading them in order to protract the conflict and to get political benefits by stigmatizing minority communities. This strategy will not work. The people of Orissa as indeed the people of the world know who the assailants are. This is no secret. What it needs is not an Inquiry for the truth is well known. It needs the political will to do what is right in accordance with the Constitution of India and the laws of this land.

8. In this, I do believe that I have the support of all religious communities in India. I do believe I have the support of those professing the Hindu religion in India as well. Hinduism is a religion of peace, nonviolence and tolerance. I am a profound admirer of the philosophical and religious tenets of Hinduism. I can therefore say with absolute certainty that those who attacked Christians in the name of religion are profoundly anti-hindu and also anti-national. They seek to divide and thus weaken our wonderful nation of kind hearted and generous people.

9. This is why I am so utterly distressed that our national leadership does not appear to be capable of actingbravely and decisively with compassion and clarity to challenge these fascist forces that have divided thenation and committed so many horrendous crimes again and again. What is at stake in the communal attacks in Orissa is not just the future of the Christian community and its security and safety, but the future of our democratic nation itself.

10. May God help us all.

Archbishop Raphael Cheenath S.V.D.
Archbishop of Cuttack – Bhubaneswar
22.10.08

Monday, October 20, 2008

Orissa Update:

Kandhamal Dalits’ turmeric crop may be stolen
20 October 2008

After losing their homes – more than 4,300 log huts, mud and brick houses have been burnt down – the 50,000 Christians o0f Kandhamal in Orissa hiding in forests for two months or living as refugees in government and NGO camps across the state, also risk losing their precious crops of the world famous aromatic turmeric and ginger to marauding neighbours egged on by Hindutva hordes.

Losing the crops will not just be losing the last hope they had of an income, it also marks the end of so much labour of love, and so much hope.

A very large number of the Dalits and Tribals -- Christian, Hindu or traditional religionists -- of the Kandhamal plateau in the heart of Orissa state are marginal farmers and rural workers for whom the turmeric and ginger added to the pittance they earned from selling forest produce such as seeds of the sal trees, resin, and mango and jackfruit.

Even this was a big racket with middlemen, most of them Oriyas of the upper castes and trading classes from the big cities, buying the produce for a song, and selling it at a five hundred to a thousand per cent profit. The ginger and turmeric grown organically on the hill slopes and valleys, fed by rainwater and tilled in backbreaking labour, are so aromatic they are used in medicines and in the cosmetic industry.

Church and other NGOs had in fact been working with the small farmers, or rather with their wives, to see how they could cut out the middlemen. This was one reason all the moneyed men were financing the late Lakhmanananda Saraswati in his war against the Church.
The Panos Dalits face a twin crisis. Many of their fields have been taken over by Tribals under the newly implemented Forest Act. This had started happening after the December 2007 violence. Now with the men and women missing, the crops are at the mercy of the neighbours and others who have been mobilised by the traders and the Sangh activists.

Experts say a majority of the big traders are outsiders from Gajapati or Ganjam districts and even from as far as Cuttack, who form the middle and upper castes and are traditional supporters of the Hindutva groups. A few Panos who had become traders have always been under pressure.

Kandhamal ginger is understood to be available in the United States, Germany and Netherlands, and Japan. About 12,000 hectare is recorded as under turmeric cultivation with an annual production of just over 10,000 tonne.

And now the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal have started targeting Union police forces, many of whom are said to be trainees. Reports say sections of the Central Reserve Police Force are frequently ambushed, and forced to run away.

The VHP has also launched a media campaign against the CRPF, accusing its policemen of harassing Hindu women.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

POLITICALWILL NEEDED TO STOP ANTI CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE

Press Statement – 14th October, 2008

[Text of Statement by Most Rev. Vincent M Concessao, Archbishop of Delhi, Dr John Dayal, Secretary General, All India Christian Council and Dr Valson Thampu, Principal, St. Stephen’s College, Christian Members of the National Integration Council after its meeting on 13th October 2008 in New Delhi]
We are happy that the meeting of the National Integration Council was called at last after three years as India seemed engulfed in several instances of communal frenzy, terrorism and extremist violence., But we were sad to see that beyond platitudes and political polemics, Union and State governments gave little indication of the political will and administrative focus required to restore confidence in the people, specially the minorities.
We are particularly distressed to see that while the continuing anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal, Orissa, Karnataka was forcefully detailed by not just the Christian members but the leaders of the Left parties, senior Jurists and Civil Society and Human Rights activists, there was no assurance forthcoming as to when the more than 50,000 Internally Displaced persons, refugees in their homeland, can return home without being forced at gunpoint by the Bajrang Dal to become Hindus.
For us, peace would be when the last refugee is back in his home, secure in his faith, with a livelihood restored, his children’s future secured as it should be in a secular India.
Hours before the NIC meeting began, arsonists had struck a Catholic church in rural Bangalore, and in Kandhamal a CRPF jawan was reportedly killed by a Sangh mob, and the mutilated body of a Christian farmer was recovered in the fields. When these were personally brought to the notice of the two chief ministers, they were dismissive of the reports.
No less a person than the Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, Mr Shafi Qureshi, a former Union Minister and Governor, had to say “the people are losing faith’ in institutions and political parties.
The Chief Minster of Orissa admitted that at least 10,000 of them are still in government run refugee camps. Tens of thousands are in the forests or have migrated to towns outside Kandhamal, and even outside Orissa. The government has admitted forty dead, though we have details of 59 men and women mercilessly killed in the seven weeks of unabated mayhem.
The confrontation between Union Home Minister Mr. Shivraj Patil and Orissa Chief Minister Mr. Naveen Pattnaik clearly showed the utter lack of coordination between the Union and State governments, the delays in sending police forces, the gross incompetence of the State officials in deploying central troops and helicopters. Though the government claims to have arrested 1,000 men, television every day shows scenes of violence and forcible conversions to Hinduism where no policeman seems to be present and the goons rule the landscape.
The inability of the Government to provide security to relief teams to go into the interiors has added to the misery. We have demanded we be given adequate security to take relief to everyday affected village and to the people still hiding in the forests.
We call upon political parties to urgently reach a consensus on curbing such senseless violence which is terrorising minorities. We have also strongly opposed the profiling of all minorities, and demand urgent confidence building measures. On our part we have done all we can. We have met every Constitutional authority at the Centre and in the affected states, heads of political parties and have even moved the High Courts and the Supreme Court. We have had dialogues with religious heads, and with leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party. We have reaffirmed the Church’s position against forcible and fraudulent conversions. And yet some government and political groups continue to harp on the same old matter which is a non-issue to the rest of the country, as a justification of the violence.
For our own community, we have demanded an early restoration of Scheduled Caste rights for Dalit Christians, a Justice Sachhar-like commission also for assessing the development status of the Christian community, and adequate representation in police and administrative forces of all states, no erosion of minority education rights and lifting of current difficulties in some places to open new schools. We have also strongly demanded that government and society overview be maintained to see that institutions, especially in the primary level in rural areas, do not teach hate, and that hate crimes in their entirety are immediately proscribed.
Other urgent steps that have long been kept in cold storage are;
1. Stern action against the hate Crimes. Hate campaigns are the incubators of communal violence.
2. Enacting of the Communal Violence Bill ensuring that it takes care of the concerns of the Christian community and does not further arm communal administrations or further embolden impunity of communalised police elements.
3. Comprehensive relief and rehabilitation policies that wipe the tear from the eye of victims of communal violence and give them the opportunity of creating a new life.
4. Adequate representation to all minorities and underprivileged groups in the Police, Administrative and Judicial systems.
5. A thorough revamp of the education system, including a close watch on the recent rash of communally motivated village and rural schools set up by political groups, so that once again secularism, religious and cultural diversity and pluralism become the cornerstone of our nation-building.
6. Above all, the State – Parliament, Supreme Court, and Executive – must ensure that no one remains under the illusion, unfortunately very well founded at present that communal politics, hate and the demonization of religious minorities can bring them electoral dividends in an India of the Twenty-first Century.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Christians speak out at National Integration Council

National Integration Council
Government of India
13 October 2008

Joint Statement by Christian Members:

Archbishop Vincent Concessao, Archbishop of Delhi
Dr John Dayal, Secretary General, All India Christian Council
Dr. Valson Thampu, Principal, St Stephen’s College, Delhi

Mr Prime Minister and Honourable Members of the National Integration Council,
We stand before you as Indian citizens professing the Christian faith. We bring you greetings from a community traumatised and struggling for its existence in the state of Orissa, and buffeted by senseless and motivated violence in eight other states of this wonderful country which is not only our beloved motherland, but is one of the first homelands of the Christian Faith in the world.
We feel it is a tragedy that the National Integration Council has met so rarely since the Honourable Prime Minister reconstituted it some years ago. As the highest national body of its kind outside the formal structure of Parliament, it could perhaps have been the forum to discuss solutions to the many incendiary issues that have ravaged our nation in recent times. There could have been solutions found, we dare say, in discussions unshackled by political whips and other agendas. Patently, Government must ensure that the NIC becomes a useful instrument in the continuing process of preserving and strengthening national integration.
For us, the threat has never been solely against the Christian community, its major victims though we are in recent months.
We know to our pain that for all practical purposes, Kandhamal district in Orissa seems not to be a part of India, as police and paramilitary could not enter it for weeks. The Indian Constitution remained operative. The National Commission for Minorities in earlier two visits in 2007 and a recent visit in August – September 2008 gave clear findings about ineffectiveness of local police and administration, and even suggested connivance, in the carnage.
The threat, therefore, is posed to the very Idea of India, as Jawaharlal Nehru would have said, to the Writ of the Constitution, to the rule of law. The Prime Minister has correctly called the horrific events in Orissa a National Shame. They are a slur on our ancient civilisation, our collective heritage. They are also cognizable crimes.
Honourable Members,
Even as we meet here today, the embers still smoke in the ruins of more than 4,300 houses and 157 Churches burnt in the Kandhamal and 13 other districts of Orissa. In a meticulously planned and executed conspiracy, a frenzied and well armed band of political criminals has threatened our community as perhaps it has never been in its 2,000 year old history in India, one of the earliest homelands of the faith.
We face a trial by gun, sword, fire and rapine, tantamount to ethnic cleansing. Over 50,000 who were forcibly purged from 300 villages now hide in forests as Internally Displaced persons, or cower in Government refugee camps in sub human conditions. They have been given a simple option – Convert to Hinduism or die.
The elements threatening them now, and who murdered 59 of them in 45 days, have been identified as – and have often come before Television camera to in macabre boast -- members of the Bajrang Dal and its sister organisations. They say it is their revenge for the killing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad vice president Lakhmanananda Saraswati on 23 August 2008. The Church condemned the murder unequivocally and called for a high powered enquiry. The guilty must be traced, arrested, tried and punished -- whatever is their religion, or ideology. The Maoists have given TV interviews accepting responsibility for the assassination. The State police have said it is the work of the Maoists.
And yet a Nun has been gang-raped, many men and women burnt alive or hacked to death. A strange retribution against an innocent people. We fear it is a conspiracy to polarise communities along religious divides in areas which had been peaceful through the decades.
The Sangh Parivar claims the violence is against forcible and fraudulent conversions to Christianity. We denounce forcible and fraudulent conversions. They would, by definition, be illegal, immoral, unethical, and against the Teachings of Faith. Five decades of Church documents, Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical, testify to this. Conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit. Repeated exercises by the National Minorities Commission and efforts by aggressive Governments have failed to provide a single proven case of forcible or fraudulent for forcible conversion. And yet State guarantees on Freedom of Faith, including the propagation of faith, and human rights are smothered in calls for moratoriums and black laws, and brutalised in police harassment.
Honourable Prime Minister and Members,
This violence must cease forthwith. Our people must be allowed to return home in peace in Kandhamal and in other districts of Orissa. We must be allowed to profess our faith in honour without fear, and without the sword of forcible conversions and the so called Ghar-wapsi, at our throat. This is what the Constitution assures us. We seek no more.
It is for the Law to take action against the guilty. We, as always, forgive our tormentors. This is our creed, a part of our daily prayers.
Experts, however, have suggested remedies that are available to the Union Government and the State.
The Fifth Schedule in the Constitution "Provisions as to the administration and control of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes” gives extensive rights to the Governor of the state. It also enjoins upon the governor the right to maintain law and order in scheduled areas.
The final word on subject of tackling communal riots should be left to the Honourable Supreme Court. [para 9- Legalpundits' Citation : LIS/SC/2008/826 - Harendra Sarkar Vs. State of Assam, [Alongwith Criminal Appeal No. 1068 of 2006] - May 2 2008—“ 9. The matter does not end with the reports of the judicial commissions alone but has been a matter of deep concern for the administration as well. The First National Police Commission headed by Shri Dharam Vira ICS (Retd.) in Volume VI, Chapter XLVII, Page 9 dealing with ''communal riots' of the report reads thus: - The investigation of crimes recorded is a matter which calls for professional skill and expertise of a different variety. Investigations of crimes cannot be undertaken in moments of tension and confusion. The National Integration Council has observed that special investigation squads should be set up to investigate crimes committed in the course of serious riots. We endorse this observation and recommend that such squads should be set up under the State Investigating agency [State CID (Crime)] to investigate all crimes committed in the course of a riot.
The Supreme Court had commended the role of the National Integration Council set up by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. We must, today, redeem that pledge.
Other urgent steps that have long been kept in cold storage are;
1. Stern action against hate Crimes. Hate campaigns are the incubators of communal violence.
2. Enacting of the Communal Violence Bill ensuring that it takes care of the concerns of the Christian community and does not further arm communal administrations or further emboldens impunity of communalised police elements.
3. Comprehensive relief and rehabilitation policies that wipe the tear from the eyes of victims of communal violence and give them the opportunity of creating a new life.
4. Adequate representation to all minorities and underprivileged groups in the Police, Administrative and judicial systems.
5. A thorough revamp of the education system, including a close watch on the recent rash of communally motivated village and rural schools set up by political groups, so that once again secularism, religious and cultural diversity and pluralism become the cornerstone of our nation-building.
6. Above all, the State – Parliament, Supreme Court, and Executive – must ensure that no one remains under the illusion, unfortunately very well founded at present, that communal politics, hate and the demonization of religious minorities can bring them electoral dividends in an India of the Twenty-first Century.

Sir,
The current violence against us is the uppermost in our mind. But we three would be failing our community if we do not refer to some other major issues that are whittling away at our Constitutional rights, and have stressed our people.
1. The issue of Dalit Christians: The Government has shown scant respect for the reports of various National Commissions commending that Christians of Dalit origin be granted the same Constitutional rights as Dalits professing other faiths. This delay, in fact, fuels the communal violence against the Christian community in various states.
2. Economic Development of the Christian community: There are a few islands of prosperity, but the vast majority of Indian Christians are Dalit, landless farmers, even manual labour. Many live below the poverty line. Many, specially women in tribal areas, remain uneducated. The Government appointed the Justice Rajender Sachhar Commission for Muslims and has acted with alacrity on its recommendations. We welcome that. We demand a similar commission and similar steps for the poor and the underdeveloped in the Christian Community.
3. Our Constitutional right to profess and propagate our faith has been severely restricted. By restraining the freedom of Propagation, we fear the attempt is to make Christianity a religion that can devolve only by birth. This violates national and international guarantees by taking away free choice of the citizen. Added to this is police interference with home worship and smaller church groups.
4. State and local laws have severely restrained out educational activities, specially for the poor. Government land is increasingly becoming unavailable to the social sector, and seems reserved for private business. English medium schools for Dalit children are now impossible in several states. Despite court decisions, there is increasing interference and erosion of Article 30 assurances.
These must end.


PART II

Our response to other Items on the NIC Agenda:

1. SOCIAL STRUCTURE – Caste and Identity divisions and rhetoric:

We hold caste to be an affront and an insult to human dignity. Untouchability has been outlawed, but is practiced openly in most states, specially in villages. Caste remains an ugly reality. It permeates administrative and police structures and is reflected in police atrocities. There seems to be swift retribution against social sector efforts to empower Dalits.

We hold every man and women to be made by God in His own image. Jesus died on the Cross to make this a reality for us.

2. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT -- Equitable development and removal of regional imbalances:

Justice Krishna Iyer famously said “In an obsession with the billionaires, we are forgetting the Billions [of poor of India]”. The Prime Minister has often spoken of the Human f ace of development. This Human face has been woefully missing. The suicides by farmers, the growth of disillusionment among poor youth and their gravitation to extremism, economically driven crime in urban areas by people seeking a `good life’ are warning posts we cannot afford to ignore. The government’s single minded focus must be on equitable distribution of the fruits of development beginning with the very basics – food, water, a roof over the head, education for the children, and primary health.

3. Promotion of Feeling of Security among minorities and other vulnerable sections:
Minorities seem to be directly isolated as if part of a design and State and Media have both acquiesced in this. Terrorism should not be defined by the religion of the criminal, but by identifying the person who commits the crime. India unfortunately turns a blind eye to hate campaigns, especially those sustained against the Muslim and Christian Communities. This has led to the demonization of communities, making them vulnerable in many ways. The government and society must show uncompressing committeemen to the rule of law. There must a response mechanism, an early warning system, a rapid action force and strategy to nip communal mischief in the bud. The minorities must be able to see their face in every edifice and branch of the state, in every instrument of power – Judiciary, Administration, and police.
State culpability must be addressed honestly. Police impunity must be ended. We regret the guilty of most communal riots, and especially those of 1984 anti Sikh violence, the 1993 and 2002 anti Muslim violence and other incidents remain unpunished.
4. Education – Promotion of Education among Minorities, Scheduled castes and scheduled Tribes

The state must reclaim it role in the education system which it has ceded to private and big business. Rural education must be closely monitored; text material, pedagogy and personnel must be screened to ensure there is no hate taught to the young Indian citizen.

5. Communal Harmony: we are a harmonious people. Level play grounds, equal opportunities, if through law such as the creation of an Equal Opportunities Commission, and close monitoring of development plans and law and order will go a long way in reassuming the communities. Subordinate and grassroots strucrur4es, peace committees, consultations can only help in this dialogue of life.


Thank you.


THE TOLL
ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE
24 August – 9 October 2008

1. ORISSA
14 Districts hit
300 Villages destroyed
4,400 Houses burnt
50,000 Homeless
59 People murdered
10 Fathers/Pastors/Nuns injured
2 Women gang-rapes confirmed [One Nun]
18,000 Men, women, children injured
151 Churches destroyed
13 Schools, colleges destroyed

2. KARNATAKA
7 Districts affected
33 Churches attacked
20 Nuns, women injured

3. KERALA
3 Churches damaged

4. MADHYA PRADESH

4 Churches damaged

5. DELHI
1 Church destroyed
4 Attempts made

6. TAMIL NADU 4 Churches attacked

7. UTTARAKHAND 2 murdered – aged priest and employee