JOHN DAYAL’S NOTE The following is the text of the order of the High Court of Orissa, Cuttack delivered by the Honourable Division Bench of Chief Justice Mr. Justice A K Ganguly and Mr. Justice B N Mahapatra on 18 March 2008 and true copy compared by B Patra and given on 20 March 2008 to the counsel All India Christian Council, which had filed a writ petition, putting a stay on the implementation of the Order of the District Collector and District Magistrate of Kandhamal District proclaimed on 11 January 2008 which had affectively banned the Christian church and NGOs from giving relief to the victims of the Anti Christian violence during Christmas week in most of the Kandhamal district once known as the Phulbani district. The All India Christian Counsel, represented by its Orissa Chapter president Rev Pran Parichha, had challenged the Collector’s order on 27th February 2008 through a Public Interest Litigation writ petition. The certified copy of the Honourable High Court Order came too late to help the community during Easter.
The High Court will hear the matter on 3rd April 2008.
The District Collector’s order has also been challenged in the Supreme Court of India by Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar Catholic Archdiocese.
The text contained here is only for information. Xerox copies of Court order will perhaps be required by NGOs and Church groups seeking to send relief to the people staying in the Barakhama refugee camp and others affected in the widespread violence. I could post or fax copies of the original if needed.]
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The High Court of Orissa, Cuttack
[Original Jurisdiction Court]
Writ Petition [C] Number 3028 of 2008
Code No. 211000
IN THE MATTER OF:
An application under Article 226 of Constitution of India
And
IN THE MATTER OF:
Public Interest Litigation challenging the arbitrary and unreasonable restrictions and ban imposed against the charitable and religious institutions for carrying our relief operation amongst the victims of communal violence in Kandhamal District or Orissa
And
IN THE MATTER OF:
All India Christian Council, [Orissa Chapter] being represented by its president Rev Pran Parichha, aged about 57 years, son of Late Subhas Chandra Parichha, at Kanika Road, PO Tulasipur, Town/ District Cuttack --- Petitioner
Versus
State of Orissa represented by the Chief secretary to the Government of Orissa, Orissa Secretariat, Bhubaneswar
Principal Secretary to Govt of Orissa, Home Department, Orissa Secretariat, Bhubaneswar
Collector and District Magistrate, Kandhamal, at Po. Phulbani, District Kandhamal
Union of India, being represented by the Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, New Delhi
--- Opp. Parties
On 18 .3.2008
Heard Counsel for the parties.
On the oral prayer made by the learned counsel for the petitioners, the name of Opposite Party number 5 is deleted from the cause title of the writ petition
Mr. Khuntia, learned counsel for the State, accepts notice on behalf of the opposite parties 1 to 4. Four extra copies of the writ petition be served on him by tomorrow, who will obtain instruction in the matter.
The mater will appear in the list on 3rd April, 2008
Perused the impugned order dated 11.1.2008 annexed as Annexure 3 of the writ petition
This Court makes it clear that the order dated 11.1.2008, shall remain stayed. However, in the matter of distribution of relief materials, all parties involved therein should maintain law and order.
Urgent certified copy of the order be granted on proper application
A free copy of the order be handed over to the learned counsel of the State.
Signed
A K Ganguly
[Chief Justice]
B N Mahapatra, Justice
--------------------
Text of aicc writ petition IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA, CUTTACK
(Original Jurisdiction Case)
W.P. (C) No. 3028_______________ of 2008
Code No. 211000
In the matter of :
An application under Article - 226 of Constitution of India.
And
In the matter of :
Public Interest Litigation challenging the arbitrary and unreasonable restrictions and ban imposed against the charitable and religious institutions for carrying out relief operation amongst the victims of communal violence in Kandhamal District of Orissa.
And
In the matter of :
All India Christian Council, (Orissa Chapter) being represented by its President Rev. Pran Ranjan Parichha, aged about 58 years, S/o. Late Subhas Chandra Parichha, At - Kanika Road, P.O. - Tulasipur, Town / Dist - Cuttack. ..... Petitioner
- Vrs. -
1. State of Orissa being represented by the Chief Secretary to Govt. of Orissa, Orissa Secretariate, Bhubaneswar.
2. Commissioner - cum - Secretary to Govt. of Orissa, Orissa Secretariate, Bhubaneswar
3. Collector & Dist. Magistrate, Kandhamal,
At / Po. Phulbani, Dist - Kandhamal.
4. Superintendent of Police, Kandhamal,
At / Po. Phulbani, Dist - Kandhamal.
5. Union of India being represented by the Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India, New Delhi.
..... Opp. Parties
The matter out of which the present application arises was not before this Hon’ble Court in the present form.
To,
The Hon’ble Sri A.K. Ganguly, M.A. LL. B. Chief Justice of Orissa High Court and His Lordship’s companion Justices of the said Hon’ble Court.
The humble petition of the petitioner named above ;
Most Respectfully Sheweth :-
1. That the petitioner in this writ application, craves to invoke the extra-ordinary jurisdiction of this Hon’ble Court calling in question the legality, rationality and reasonableness of the Circular dt. 11.01.2008 issued by the Collector & Dist. Magistrate, Kandhamal, imposing a blanket ban on the NGOs and charitable institutions in carrying out relief operation for the victims of communal violence in the Kandamal District of Orissa.
That apart, the petitioner has moved this writ application espousing the causes of suffering victims who have been terribly affected by the outbreak of unprecedented communal violence in the District of Kandhamal and who are not in a position to protect their own rights and interests on account of their poverty, incapacity and ignorance. Moreover, the petitioner in this writ application, has raised a matter of great public importance challenging the arbitrary and unreasonable decision of the opp. parties which has undermined the fundamental rights of the aforesaid victims as guaranteed under Part - III of the Constitution of India and in essence, sought for its enforcement.
2. That All India Christian Council, on whose behalf the petitioner has moved this writ application happens to be a registered Trust with an all - India Jurisdiction bearing Regn. No. ..................... Needless to say that All India Christian Council is a Non-govt. Organizaiton serving people at large in different States. It has opened a State Chapter in the State of Orissa in order to carry out its aims and objectives.
A true copy of the memorandum and aims & objects of the Trust are annexed herewith as Annexure - 1.
3. That it is peritnent to mention here that the Petitioner-Organization namely, All India Christian Council is serving people at the time of natural calamities irrespective of class, creed or religion. It has worked very closely with the Government in reaching the needy and helpless victims at the time of calamities. Be it Gujrat Earthquake or the Super Cyclone of Orissa or Tsunami, All India Christian Council, through its relief arm and one of its major constituents namely Operation Mobilisation India, has sprung into action to help the victims irrespective of their faith or religion. In this respect, the communication of the Commissioner-cum-Secretary to Govt. incharge of Co-ordination with NGOs for Dissaster / Cyclone relief and rehabilitation) is enclosed herewith as Annexure - 2 to show the relief operation undertaken in Orissa on behalf of the Petitioner - Organization.
4. That although the devastating scar of super cyclone has hardly been erased from the Public memories, yet another calamity of similar magnitude, (this time man - made), in the worst form of communal violence, has struck the most backward Kandhamal District of Orissa severely affecting about 1000 families. It all started on the Christmas eve i.e. 24.12.2007 when a pre- planned and organized attack was unleashed against minority christians by some fanatic groups which spread like wild fire across more than 70 villages in Kandhamal District destroying and ransacking several houses, churches, institutions which are mercilessly and monstrously turned into a bonfire much to the delight of the perpetrators of communal violence. The helpless victims including woman and children desperately ran helter - skelter and in order to save their lives they even took shelter in jungles amidst freezing cold. Apparently, the District Administration utterly failed to protect the life and property of the people and succumbed to the communal frenzy of the militant groups. Even today, the confidence of the victims have not been fully restored back and their constitutional guarantees of right to life and livelihood are still in great stake.
5. That in the above backdrop, undisputedly, the aftermath of communal violence in Kandhamal demands a massive relief and rehabilitation measures both by Govt. and non - Govt. agencies which need to be undertaken on an urgent basis without any further loss of time..
But, shockingly enough, the District Administration, instead of ensuring and creating a conducive atmosphere for carrying out the much - needed relief and rehabilitation activities in the affected areas and among the victims, it has arbitrarily and whimsically imposed a blanket ban on the same by issuing a Circular dt. 11.01.2008 restraining the Charitable / religious institutions or NGOs to carry out any kind of relief operation in Kandhamal District among the affected people on their own. Most astonishingly, the circular gives out an impending threat of legal action under the “relevant section of I.P.C. & Cr. P.C” against the institutions violating the instructions contained therein.
A true copy of the said circular dt. 11.01.2008 issued by the collector & Dist. Magistrate, Kandhamal, is annexed herewith as Annexure - 3 for the close scrutiny of this Hon’ble Court.
6. That being confronted with the arbitrary and unreasonable restrictions imposed under Annexure- 3, the Petitioner - Organization approached the Collector & Dist. Magistrate, Kandhamal (O.P. No. 3) by submitting a representation stating inter alia that it has undertaken relief and rehabilitation activities in Orissa during Super cyclone and also it has been extending such reliefs in other parts of the country irrespective of cast, creed and religion. In such circumstances, the Petitioner-Organization and for that matter any such relief agencies, institutions or NGOs should not be restricted to extend their helping hands for the victims at large.
A true copy of the said representation dt. 12. 02. 08 is annexed herewith as Annexure - 4 for the kind perusal of this Hon’ble Court.
7. That though several days have passed in the meantime, the said authority has not given any due attention to the impartial appeal made by the Petitioner - Organization for distribution of reliefs irrespective cast, creed or religion for the victims of the Kandhamal district. As the authorities are sitting over the matter, instead of taking any urgent decision, the petitioner - organization has no alternative than to approach this Hon’ble Court seeking appropriate and efficacious remedy for the benefits of the victims of communal violence in general. Hence, the petitioner - Organization impungs the legality and reasonableness of the Circular dt. 11.01.2008 under Annexure - 3 on the following amongst other ;
G R O U N D S
(A) For that the impugned circular under Annexure - 3 prohibiting the charitable / religious institutions or NGOs to carry out any kind of relief operation in the Dist. of Kandhamal among the affected people on their own, is per se inhuman, unreasonable and arbitrary in as much as it militates against the fundamental rights as well as human rights of the victims who have fallen prey to the unprecedent communal violence.
(B) For that the relief package announced by the Govt. is highly inadequate and does not cover all the basic necessities of the victims. In such an alarming situation, the relief agencies and NGOs like the Petitioner-Organization cannot be blatantly prohibited much less denied to participate in the relief operation because of the simple reason that the extension and distribution of relief to the victims of natural and/or man - made calamities, is purely a philanthropic act and hence it is highly preposterous on the part of O.P. No. 3 to think that such an act would further flare up the communal tension. If at all any such untoward incident takes place, then the Dist. Administration should not feel helpless to control the situation in lieu of deprieving the victims from the healing touch of relief operation.
(C) For that the stipulation and the high-handed insistence made by the Collector (O.P. No. 3) in the impugned circular that if any organization wants to give any relief material, they should give relief for all 1000 families and it should be donated to Dist. Red Cross Branch, which shall only be carrying the relief operation among the various affected people, amounts to gross arbitrariness in as much as no relief package or operation (which pre-supposes charity), can be subjected to ruthless regimentation and furthermore, no relief agencies can be dictated and/or compelled either to give reliefs for all the affected people or not to give at all. Needless to say that the extent of relief would always depend on the limits of economic capacity of each relief agency. As such, the impugned circular issued by the Collector under Annexure - 3, patently suffers from non - application of mind and hence on this ground alone, the same is liable to be struck down by this Hon’ble Court.
(D) For that even otherwise, the open threat of Criminal prosecution under the “relevant section of IPC and Cr. P.C. against the concerned NGOs, religious and charitable institutions, issued under the impugned circular is highly illegal, unfair and chauvinistic in as much as distribution of reliefs to the victims of communal riots cannot be equated with a criminal offence.
(E) For that the Petitioner - Organization has a right to give relief and assistance to the persons in distress and infact, it has undertaken substantial relief operation at the time of supercyclone in Orissa, in Gujrat riots and earthquakes and also during Tsunami. Moreover, the Petitioner - Organization is ready and willing to abide by any just and reasonable guidelines or to any regulatory mechanism ensuring its meaningful participation in the relief operation. In view of this, there is no reason why the Petitioner-Organization should not be allowed to undertake and handle relief operations among the victims in Kandhamal irrespective of caste, creed or religion on humanitarian ground.
(F) For that in the above premises, the impugned circular at Annexure - 3 being highly detrimental and injurious to the victims of communal violence in Kandhamal, the same cannot be allowed to operate any longer and hence it deserves to be set aside by this Hon’ble Court in the larger interest of the victims as well as for enforcement and protection of their fundamental rights enshrined under Article - 14 & 21 of Constitution of India.
(G) For that this is a fit case where this Hon’ble Court ought to invoke the power of judicial review in as much as the impugned circular at Annexure - 3 being highly unreasonable and oppressive, cannot pass
through the test of judicial scrutiny in the touchstone of Articles 14 & 21 of Constitution of India.
(H) For that there being no speedy and efficacious remedy as this, the petitioner begs to invoke the extra-ordinary jurisdiction of this Hon’ble Court seeking appropriate reliefs.
P R A Y E R
Under the above facts and exceptional circumstances of the case, this Hon’ble Court may be graciously pleased to issue Rule Nisi calling upon the Opp. Parties to show cause as to why ;
(i) The impugned circular dt. 11.01.2008 issued by O.P. No. 3 under Annexure - 3 shall not be quashed or set aside ;
(ii) A writ of mandamus shall not be issued against the Opp. Parties commanding them to allow the Petitioner - Organization to carry out the relief operation among the victims of communal violence in Kandhamal District irrespective of cast, creed or religion.
If the Opp. Parties fail to show cause or show insufficient cause, the said Rule be made absolute.
And / or any other orders / directions may be passed in the facts and circumstances of the case.
And for this act of kindness, the petitioner as in duty bound shall ever pray.
Cuttack By the Petitioner through
Date : 26th Feb.2008 Pratap Chandra Chhinchani
Advocate
Affidavit
I, Rev. Pran Ranjan Parichha, aged about 58 years, S/o. Late Subash Ch. Parichha, President of All India Christian Council, Orissa Chapter, At - Kanika Road, P.O. Tulsipur,, P.S. Bidanasi, Town / Dist - Cuttack, do hereby solemnly state and affirm as follows :-
1. That I am the petitioner in the present case.
2. That the facts stated above are true to my knowledge and belief.
Identified by:
Pratap Ch. Chinchani Rev. Dr. Pran Ranjan Parichha
Advocate Deponent.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
AICC, AICU regret hanging of Christianin Pakistan
Indian Christian groups regret hanging of Christian in Pakistan despite clemency appeals
PRESS STATEMENT
New Delhi, 13 March 2008
The following is the text of the Statement by Dr John Dayal on behalf of the All; India Christian Council, the All India Catholic Union, United Christian Action and other civil society and faith groups:
The Human Rights movement in the world must surely mourn the hanging of a Christian, Zahid Masih, on 12 March 2008 by the Pakistani regime at the end of trial widely criticized as violative of the principles of justice.
Masih was hanged to death at 6 a.m. local time on Wednesday, March 12 after being convicted of killing a Muslim boy. Zahid Masih, who was in his 20s, was executed at the Central Jail in the city of Multan in Pakistan’s Punjab province despite appeals for clemency. News reports said his frail mother and other relatives were seen crying inconsolably outside the jail when they received Masih’s human remains, two hours after the execution took place.
Pakistani and international rights groups have said it was an unfair trial. The defense team, church groups, and human rights organizations urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and other authorities to grant him clemency. Masih’s lawyer, Prince Rehan Iftikhar, said he had personally filed a mercy appeal. The lawyer has said that during court proceedings “Zahid Masih was not given any chance to defend himself”, adding that “Pakistan’s government has treated him like a dog. No one heard our voice for mercy.”
The hanging of the Christian youth comes even as the President of Pakistan, retired General Pervez Musharraf released an Indian citizen who had been condemned to death on charges of spying. Clemency is also shown to many others on death row in Pakistan’s prisons.
It is a matter of deep regret that Pakistan’s governments, despite claims of the rule of law and justice continue to be extraordinarily harsh in prosecuting Christians, facing either charges of blasphemy under Islamabad’s notorious anti Blasphemy laws, or other criminal charges.
Under tremendous international pressure, including that by Indian Christian organisations such as the AICC and the AICU, the government in the past had reviewed the cases of other condemned prisoners. But in recent years, even as regime professes a commitment to democratic norms, the international human rights movements have seen a hardening of attitude in the authorities, both at the Federal government level as also in the provinces. This was also revealed by Pakistani delegates who attended the recent South Asian Minorities Council’s Global meeting at Parliament House complex in New Delhi.
We fully expect the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religious Beliefs now touring India, the UN Human Rights Council, and the Indian government to take up the matter of treatment of religious minorities – particularly the microscopic Christian community – by the regime in Islamabad.
PRESS STATEMENT
New Delhi, 13 March 2008
The following is the text of the Statement by Dr John Dayal on behalf of the All; India Christian Council, the All India Catholic Union, United Christian Action and other civil society and faith groups:
The Human Rights movement in the world must surely mourn the hanging of a Christian, Zahid Masih, on 12 March 2008 by the Pakistani regime at the end of trial widely criticized as violative of the principles of justice.
Masih was hanged to death at 6 a.m. local time on Wednesday, March 12 after being convicted of killing a Muslim boy. Zahid Masih, who was in his 20s, was executed at the Central Jail in the city of Multan in Pakistan’s Punjab province despite appeals for clemency. News reports said his frail mother and other relatives were seen crying inconsolably outside the jail when they received Masih’s human remains, two hours after the execution took place.
Pakistani and international rights groups have said it was an unfair trial. The defense team, church groups, and human rights organizations urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and other authorities to grant him clemency. Masih’s lawyer, Prince Rehan Iftikhar, said he had personally filed a mercy appeal. The lawyer has said that during court proceedings “Zahid Masih was not given any chance to defend himself”, adding that “Pakistan’s government has treated him like a dog. No one heard our voice for mercy.”
The hanging of the Christian youth comes even as the President of Pakistan, retired General Pervez Musharraf released an Indian citizen who had been condemned to death on charges of spying. Clemency is also shown to many others on death row in Pakistan’s prisons.
It is a matter of deep regret that Pakistan’s governments, despite claims of the rule of law and justice continue to be extraordinarily harsh in prosecuting Christians, facing either charges of blasphemy under Islamabad’s notorious anti Blasphemy laws, or other criminal charges.
Under tremendous international pressure, including that by Indian Christian organisations such as the AICC and the AICU, the government in the past had reviewed the cases of other condemned prisoners. But in recent years, even as regime professes a commitment to democratic norms, the international human rights movements have seen a hardening of attitude in the authorities, both at the Federal government level as also in the provinces. This was also revealed by Pakistani delegates who attended the recent South Asian Minorities Council’s Global meeting at Parliament House complex in New Delhi.
We fully expect the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religious Beliefs now touring India, the UN Human Rights Council, and the Indian government to take up the matter of treatment of religious minorities – particularly the microscopic Christian community – by the regime in Islamabad.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
EU questions on Orissa violence against Christians
Orissa violence figures in EU Parliament
Questions have been asked by European Parliamentarians on the Christmas 2007 anti Christian violence in the Kandhamala district of Orissa by VHP activists.
Europe MP Mr. Jim Allister asked “Is the EU Commission for External Relations aware of the widespread violence against Christians perpetrated by Hindu extremists in Kandhamala district, Orissa, during the week that preceded Christmas? Reports indicate that several Christians have been murdered, 65 churches have been burnt down, 600 homes of Christians have been destroyed, and hundreds of Christians have been displaced since the violence began on Christmas Eve. Has the Commission made representations to the Indian authorities to ensure that a thorough investigation be undertaken by the Central Bureau of Investigation and that police accept the complaint of the victims? Will the Commission make sure that action is taken against the perpetrators under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes Act and that justice is delivered by an appropriate court?”
The answer given by Mrs. Ferrero-Waldner on behalf of the EU Commission for External Relations Commission on 13 February 2008 was: “The Commission is aware of reports of recent violence against Christians, their homes and churches perpetrated by religious extremists in Kandhamala district, Orissa. In response to these events, Commission officials in Brussels have shared with Indian counterparts the concern widely felt in Europe over the scale of the violence and the targeting of the vulnerable part of the population. Indian officials have manifested awareness of the importance of pursuing justice and protecting the vulnerable in this situation. The Commission was also informed that, under Indian law, state government authorities hold the primary responsibility for law and order in the area. The Commission has received assurances that the Indian Government will ensure that action is taken. The Indian Embassy has also undertaken to provide further information in the future. The Commission’s Delegation in New Delhi will continue to gather information on the violence in Orissa. The Commission's Delegation in New Delhi will follow closely the decision taken by the judicial system against the perpetrators of these acts. In addition, the Delhi-based National Commission for Minorities (NCM) is expected to publish a report on the situation, prepared by the team, which the NCM sent on a fact-finding mission to Orissa earlier in January 2008.”
Questions have been asked by European Parliamentarians on the Christmas 2007 anti Christian violence in the Kandhamala district of Orissa by VHP activists.
Europe MP Mr. Jim Allister asked “Is the EU Commission for External Relations aware of the widespread violence against Christians perpetrated by Hindu extremists in Kandhamala district, Orissa, during the week that preceded Christmas? Reports indicate that several Christians have been murdered, 65 churches have been burnt down, 600 homes of Christians have been destroyed, and hundreds of Christians have been displaced since the violence began on Christmas Eve. Has the Commission made representations to the Indian authorities to ensure that a thorough investigation be undertaken by the Central Bureau of Investigation and that police accept the complaint of the victims? Will the Commission make sure that action is taken against the perpetrators under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes Act and that justice is delivered by an appropriate court?”
The answer given by Mrs. Ferrero-Waldner on behalf of the EU Commission for External Relations Commission on 13 February 2008 was: “The Commission is aware of reports of recent violence against Christians, their homes and churches perpetrated by religious extremists in Kandhamala district, Orissa. In response to these events, Commission officials in Brussels have shared with Indian counterparts the concern widely felt in Europe over the scale of the violence and the targeting of the vulnerable part of the population. Indian officials have manifested awareness of the importance of pursuing justice and protecting the vulnerable in this situation. The Commission was also informed that, under Indian law, state government authorities hold the primary responsibility for law and order in the area. The Commission has received assurances that the Indian Government will ensure that action is taken. The Indian Embassy has also undertaken to provide further information in the future. The Commission’s Delegation in New Delhi will continue to gather information on the violence in Orissa. The Commission's Delegation in New Delhi will follow closely the decision taken by the judicial system against the perpetrators of these acts. In addition, the Delhi-based National Commission for Minorities (NCM) is expected to publish a report on the situation, prepared by the team, which the NCM sent on a fact-finding mission to Orissa earlier in January 2008.”
Monday, March 3, 2008
Government adds another hurdle in path of Dalit Christians
Government mocking Dalit Christian sentiments in referring issue to yet another commission
PRESS STATEMENT
New Delhi, 4 March 2008
[The following is the text of the statement made to the media by Dr John Dayal today on behalf of the All India Christian Council and the All India Catholic Union while reacting to the comments of Union Welfare Minister Ms Meira Kumar in Parliament on the issue of Dalit Christians.]
NEW DELHI:
A cruel joke has been played by the Government on India's sixteen million Dalit Christians in referring to yet another commission their six decade long peaceful request to be restored Constitutional rights extended to Dalits of other religions.
The Government admits that every single Constitutional authority in the country has upheld the legal and moral validity of the demand of the Dalit Christians. And yet on 3rd March 2008, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar told Parliament that matter has been now referred to the National Commission for Backward Classes for consideration.
The Dalit Christians moved the Supreme Court of India in a Public Interest Litigation, fir which the next hearing is later this month. After the court was moved, the Government first sent the issue to the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, headed by former Chief Justice of India Mr. Rangnath Misra, to suggest if Dalit and Backward Christians and Muslims could be treated at par with other with Scheduled Castes for reservations in Government jobs and admission in educational institutions. Justice Misra said the Dalit Christians had a legitimate case for being treated at par with other scheduled castes.
The Government then sent the issue the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, headed by former Union Home Minister Dr Buta Singh, who also ruled the commission had no objection to extending reservation to Dalit Christians and Muslims but the 15 per cent quota for Scheduled Castes should not be disturbed.
Now Ms Meira Kumar says the issue has to be examined afresh in view of Supreme Court setting a 50 per cent ceiling for reservation to all castes. Since Dalit Christians and Muslims have in some states classified under other backward classes and the reservation issue was referred to the National Commission for Backward Classes.
Although Ms Kumar says the reservation to Dalit Christians and Muslims is under detailed consideration process which is mandated by law and constitution, and that there is no attempt to delay the issue, there is ample reason to suspect the Government's intentions. It did not undertake this lengthy process while extending the reservations and other privileges to Sikhs and Buddhist Dalits some years ago. It is only in the case of the Christian demand that these new regulations have been suddenly discovered.
It may be recalled that the Centre for Public Interest Litigation and several others have filed Civil writ petitions in the Supreme Court wherein it has been requested to declare clause (3) of the Constitution (scheduled castes) order, 1950 as unconstitutional and void as it denied benefits to Dalit Christians and Muslims. Petitions have also been filed in High Courts of Bombay, Madras, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab and Haryana and Rajasthan.
In the final analysis, the issue is one of the Government's political will to extend to Dalit Christians and Muslims the identical privileges enjoyed by Hindu Dalits and also by Dalits professing the Sikh and Buddhist faiths. Most political parties, in the ruling alliance as well as in the Opposition ranks, have supported the cause of the Dalit Christians. These include three major parties – the Communist Party Marxist-led Left Front which rules in West Bengal and Kerala, the Bahujan Samaj Party in power in Uttar Pradesh, and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam which has a Government in Tamil Nadu. The Hindutva Bharatiya Janata Party remains the solitary party to continue to oppose the Christians. But its allies, including Bihar chief Minister Nitish Kumar, have extended full support to the Christians.
The long delay in removing the religious bigotry in the law is both illegal and against the proclaimed secular policies of the United Progressive Alliance. The Government need not wait for the Supreme Court to decide the matter, but can announce its own decision in Parliament through appropriate legislation. The sooner it does so, the better will it be for its own credibility, and for the cause of freedom of faith and justice in India.
Released to the Media
Dr. John Dayal
Member: National Integration Council
Government of India
National President: All India Catholic Union (Founded 1919)
Secretary General: All India Christian Council (Founded 1999)
President: United Christian Action, Delhi (Founded 1992)
505 Link, 18 IP Extension, Delhi 110092 India
Email: johndayal@vsnl.com
http://groups.google.com/group/JohnDayal
Phone: 91-11-22722262 Mobile 09811021072
PRESS STATEMENT
New Delhi, 4 March 2008
[The following is the text of the statement made to the media by Dr John Dayal today on behalf of the All India Christian Council and the All India Catholic Union while reacting to the comments of Union Welfare Minister Ms Meira Kumar in Parliament on the issue of Dalit Christians.]
NEW DELHI:
A cruel joke has been played by the Government on India's sixteen million Dalit Christians in referring to yet another commission their six decade long peaceful request to be restored Constitutional rights extended to Dalits of other religions.
The Government admits that every single Constitutional authority in the country has upheld the legal and moral validity of the demand of the Dalit Christians. And yet on 3rd March 2008, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar told Parliament that matter has been now referred to the National Commission for Backward Classes for consideration.
The Dalit Christians moved the Supreme Court of India in a Public Interest Litigation, fir which the next hearing is later this month. After the court was moved, the Government first sent the issue to the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, headed by former Chief Justice of India Mr. Rangnath Misra, to suggest if Dalit and Backward Christians and Muslims could be treated at par with other with Scheduled Castes for reservations in Government jobs and admission in educational institutions. Justice Misra said the Dalit Christians had a legitimate case for being treated at par with other scheduled castes.
The Government then sent the issue the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, headed by former Union Home Minister Dr Buta Singh, who also ruled the commission had no objection to extending reservation to Dalit Christians and Muslims but the 15 per cent quota for Scheduled Castes should not be disturbed.
Now Ms Meira Kumar says the issue has to be examined afresh in view of Supreme Court setting a 50 per cent ceiling for reservation to all castes. Since Dalit Christians and Muslims have in some states classified under other backward classes and the reservation issue was referred to the National Commission for Backward Classes.
Although Ms Kumar says the reservation to Dalit Christians and Muslims is under detailed consideration process which is mandated by law and constitution, and that there is no attempt to delay the issue, there is ample reason to suspect the Government's intentions. It did not undertake this lengthy process while extending the reservations and other privileges to Sikhs and Buddhist Dalits some years ago. It is only in the case of the Christian demand that these new regulations have been suddenly discovered.
It may be recalled that the Centre for Public Interest Litigation and several others have filed Civil writ petitions in the Supreme Court wherein it has been requested to declare clause (3) of the Constitution (scheduled castes) order, 1950 as unconstitutional and void as it denied benefits to Dalit Christians and Muslims. Petitions have also been filed in High Courts of Bombay, Madras, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab and Haryana and Rajasthan.
In the final analysis, the issue is one of the Government's political will to extend to Dalit Christians and Muslims the identical privileges enjoyed by Hindu Dalits and also by Dalits professing the Sikh and Buddhist faiths. Most political parties, in the ruling alliance as well as in the Opposition ranks, have supported the cause of the Dalit Christians. These include three major parties – the Communist Party Marxist-led Left Front which rules in West Bengal and Kerala, the Bahujan Samaj Party in power in Uttar Pradesh, and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam which has a Government in Tamil Nadu. The Hindutva Bharatiya Janata Party remains the solitary party to continue to oppose the Christians. But its allies, including Bihar chief Minister Nitish Kumar, have extended full support to the Christians.
The long delay in removing the religious bigotry in the law is both illegal and against the proclaimed secular policies of the United Progressive Alliance. The Government need not wait for the Supreme Court to decide the matter, but can announce its own decision in Parliament through appropriate legislation. The sooner it does so, the better will it be for its own credibility, and for the cause of freedom of faith and justice in India.
Released to the Media
Dr. John Dayal
Member: National Integration Council
Government of India
National President: All India Catholic Union (Founded 1919)
Secretary General: All India Christian Council (Founded 1999)
President: United Christian Action, Delhi (Founded 1992)
505 Link, 18 IP Extension, Delhi 110092 India
Email: johndayal@vsnl.com
http://groups.google.com/group/JohnDayal
Phone: 91-11-22722262 Mobile 09811021072
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Concern at surge in Sangh Parivar violence as General Elections draw near
ALL INDIA CHRISTIAN COUNCIL
PRESS STATEMENT
Bangaluru, February 28, 2008
CBI Probe sought in Orissa violence during Christmas 2007
Complicity of police, bureaucracy alleged in many States
[The following is the text of the Press Statement issued on Thursday, 28th February 2008, at the Press Club, Bengaluru, by Dr John Dayal, Secretary General, All India Christian Council, President, All India Catholic Union and Member, National Integration Council of India. The Press Conference was addressed by Dr. John Dayal, Fr Adolph Washington, President, Indian Catholic Press Association, Dr Ambrose Pinto, Mr Mariaswamy, Convener, Karnataka Dalith Christian Federation, and Mr Sam Joseph, All India Christian Council, Karnataka unit.]
[I]. On the 6th anniversary of the massacres of Gujarat 2002, India’s Christian Community joins other minorities and the Dalit and OBCs in welcoming President Pratibha Patil’s assurance in the 2008 Budget Session of Parliament that “the Government will remain ever vigilant against the machinations of any anti-social and anti-national groups seeking to disrupt law and order, communal harmony and the unity and integrity of our Republic.”
We also welcome the assurances of the Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme hoping to ensure that benefits of the development programmes flow equitably to the minorities. But we also hope that the poor of the Christian Community, especially Dalit Christians will also benefit from the special programmes earmarked for Minorities. Our experience so far has been that the Christian community remains entirely untouched by such programmes.
[II]. But the guilty the mass murders of Muslims in 1993 and 2002 remain unpunished, as do those involved in the anti Sikh violence of 1984. The killers, rapists and attackers of Christian Nuns ad Pastors, the desecrators and destroyers of churches – an average of more than 200 hundred cases a year since 1998 -- also remain unpunished. In almost all cases, the assailants have been identified as members of the Sangh Parivar, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal, the Adivasi Kalyan Sangh and their local units under various names. .
[III]. We are deeply disturbed that despite the Union government’ claims of vigilance against communal forces, the Sangh Parivar has been given a free run of the country. As the Bharatiya Janata Party targets power in Parliament and Major State Assemblies in the coming General Elections, including in Karnataka, the militant and armed Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal have unleashed terror in many States. Last Sunday, the Sangh gangs had the audacity to attack a Church in the heart of the National capital of New Delhi, while also carrying out simultaneous attacks on Churches in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and other states.
[IV] Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have also not been immune to the Sangh conspiracy to polarize society and to target both Muslim and Christian religious minorities. In Karnataka, it is widely known that the Sangh Parivar, once again aided and abetted by the bureaucracy and the police, is Communalising the environment and is demanding that Churches and Mosques not be allowed to be constructed in region such as Udipi. Devangere and other districts are also affected, and even in the capital of Bangaluru, it is becoming difficult for the community to even voice its protest without being accosted by the Sangh Parivar. Terrorism and political extremist violence are real threats to the nation, but the Sangh Parivar poses no less threat to the nation.
[V]. The situation, of course, remains critical in the Kandhamal District of the state of Orissa, where the BJP is a partner in the government – and the police are entirely siding with the Sangh Parivar. During Christmas 2007, over a 100 big and small churches were utterly destroyed, over 700 houses and 40 Christian shops burnt widespread arson, five convents, five presbyteries, the states major leprosaria ashram, seven hostels and training centres were set on fire. Even a cow was killed by Sangh terror mobs. Police and magistrates watched in most cases. Five Christians were killed in the mob violence, as also a Hindu. But while many arrests have been made, and even pastors tortured in the hunt for his killers, the murderers of the Christians go scot free. The arsonists are in fact members of so called government peace committed.
Three thousand Christians are in refugee camps in sub human conditions, the women subject of humiliation. Basic human dignity has been violated, and daily needs are not met. School going children face a bleak future wit no books, no coaching and no nourishment other than a fit barely fit for human consummation.
The police are refusing to register First Information Reports, and in fact turning on the Christian community. The senior administrators have as yet not been able to give any genuine assurance of tree rehabilitation of the victims who lost their houses to Sangh arsonists. The government must take steps to show to the world that Lakhmanand Saraswati, widely known to be behind the anti Christian violence, is not above the law. He and his hordes continue to spew hate, and terrorize the Christian victims.
The community desperately needs legal aid. It cannot trust the Judicial Commission headed by a retired judge which was announced two month ago, but is yet to start its work., Even before it begins it work, the commission has come under the pressure of the Sangh Parivar and the BJP ministers in the State government who have clearly made known that they expect the retired Orissa High Court Judge to indict the Christians for conversion rather than to identify the killers and the men who burnt the churches and the homes.
We reiterate our demand for a Government of India probe through the Central Bureau of Investigations.
[VI] The suffering of Dalit Christians remains unabated. The Supreme Court has had to repeatedly adjourn hearings in the Writ Petition by the Public Interest Litigation Centre and Dalit groups because of the Central government’s refusal to commit itself as it did earlier for Dalit Sikhs and Buddhists. The National Commission headed by former Chief Justice Jagan Nath Misra accepted their demand for inclusion in the list of Scheduled Castes. But the National Commission of Scheduled Castes headed by Dr. Buta Singh has said this can be done only through a fresh set of quotas. This will not be possible unless the Supreme Court raises the limits of reservations above 50 per cent. Effectively, government, court and commissions have been passing the buck to each other while millions of Dalit Christians and Muslims suffer a double discrimination.
[VII]. We also call on the Supreme Court to ensure the neutrality of the subordinate judiciary, the district magistracy and the State police forces. The Supreme Court must also encourage the rebuilding of Civil Society which is currently in a state of hibernation and has been struck dumb out of fear of the Sangh Parivar. The religious minorities are being demonized as threats to national security, and therefore fit target of Sangh and official terror. Certain sections of the media have also fallen into this trap and are publishing or broadcasting stories without a shred of evidence.
Instead of chastising the few voices of protest from Human rights activists such as Ms. Teesta Setalvad, the highest court in the land must help strengthen the civil society and human rights movement in the country which alone can unite the minorities and the marginalised to face the onslaught of the Sangh Parivar, and to help preserve the unity and integrity of secular India.
Released to the media by Mr Sam Joseph, All India Christian Council, Bangaluru. Mobile 9480090324. Dr Dayal can be contacted at 09811021072 and johndayal@vsnl.com.
PRESS STATEMENT
Bangaluru, February 28, 2008
CBI Probe sought in Orissa violence during Christmas 2007
Complicity of police, bureaucracy alleged in many States
[The following is the text of the Press Statement issued on Thursday, 28th February 2008, at the Press Club, Bengaluru, by Dr John Dayal, Secretary General, All India Christian Council, President, All India Catholic Union and Member, National Integration Council of India. The Press Conference was addressed by Dr. John Dayal, Fr Adolph Washington, President, Indian Catholic Press Association, Dr Ambrose Pinto, Mr Mariaswamy, Convener, Karnataka Dalith Christian Federation, and Mr Sam Joseph, All India Christian Council, Karnataka unit.]
[I]. On the 6th anniversary of the massacres of Gujarat 2002, India’s Christian Community joins other minorities and the Dalit and OBCs in welcoming President Pratibha Patil’s assurance in the 2008 Budget Session of Parliament that “the Government will remain ever vigilant against the machinations of any anti-social and anti-national groups seeking to disrupt law and order, communal harmony and the unity and integrity of our Republic.”
We also welcome the assurances of the Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme hoping to ensure that benefits of the development programmes flow equitably to the minorities. But we also hope that the poor of the Christian Community, especially Dalit Christians will also benefit from the special programmes earmarked for Minorities. Our experience so far has been that the Christian community remains entirely untouched by such programmes.
[II]. But the guilty the mass murders of Muslims in 1993 and 2002 remain unpunished, as do those involved in the anti Sikh violence of 1984. The killers, rapists and attackers of Christian Nuns ad Pastors, the desecrators and destroyers of churches – an average of more than 200 hundred cases a year since 1998 -- also remain unpunished. In almost all cases, the assailants have been identified as members of the Sangh Parivar, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal, the Adivasi Kalyan Sangh and their local units under various names. .
[III]. We are deeply disturbed that despite the Union government’ claims of vigilance against communal forces, the Sangh Parivar has been given a free run of the country. As the Bharatiya Janata Party targets power in Parliament and Major State Assemblies in the coming General Elections, including in Karnataka, the militant and armed Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal have unleashed terror in many States. Last Sunday, the Sangh gangs had the audacity to attack a Church in the heart of the National capital of New Delhi, while also carrying out simultaneous attacks on Churches in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and other states.
[IV] Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have also not been immune to the Sangh conspiracy to polarize society and to target both Muslim and Christian religious minorities. In Karnataka, it is widely known that the Sangh Parivar, once again aided and abetted by the bureaucracy and the police, is Communalising the environment and is demanding that Churches and Mosques not be allowed to be constructed in region such as Udipi. Devangere and other districts are also affected, and even in the capital of Bangaluru, it is becoming difficult for the community to even voice its protest without being accosted by the Sangh Parivar. Terrorism and political extremist violence are real threats to the nation, but the Sangh Parivar poses no less threat to the nation.
[V]. The situation, of course, remains critical in the Kandhamal District of the state of Orissa, where the BJP is a partner in the government – and the police are entirely siding with the Sangh Parivar. During Christmas 2007, over a 100 big and small churches were utterly destroyed, over 700 houses and 40 Christian shops burnt widespread arson, five convents, five presbyteries, the states major leprosaria ashram, seven hostels and training centres were set on fire. Even a cow was killed by Sangh terror mobs. Police and magistrates watched in most cases. Five Christians were killed in the mob violence, as also a Hindu. But while many arrests have been made, and even pastors tortured in the hunt for his killers, the murderers of the Christians go scot free. The arsonists are in fact members of so called government peace committed.
Three thousand Christians are in refugee camps in sub human conditions, the women subject of humiliation. Basic human dignity has been violated, and daily needs are not met. School going children face a bleak future wit no books, no coaching and no nourishment other than a fit barely fit for human consummation.
The police are refusing to register First Information Reports, and in fact turning on the Christian community. The senior administrators have as yet not been able to give any genuine assurance of tree rehabilitation of the victims who lost their houses to Sangh arsonists. The government must take steps to show to the world that Lakhmanand Saraswati, widely known to be behind the anti Christian violence, is not above the law. He and his hordes continue to spew hate, and terrorize the Christian victims.
The community desperately needs legal aid. It cannot trust the Judicial Commission headed by a retired judge which was announced two month ago, but is yet to start its work., Even before it begins it work, the commission has come under the pressure of the Sangh Parivar and the BJP ministers in the State government who have clearly made known that they expect the retired Orissa High Court Judge to indict the Christians for conversion rather than to identify the killers and the men who burnt the churches and the homes.
We reiterate our demand for a Government of India probe through the Central Bureau of Investigations.
[VI] The suffering of Dalit Christians remains unabated. The Supreme Court has had to repeatedly adjourn hearings in the Writ Petition by the Public Interest Litigation Centre and Dalit groups because of the Central government’s refusal to commit itself as it did earlier for Dalit Sikhs and Buddhists. The National Commission headed by former Chief Justice Jagan Nath Misra accepted their demand for inclusion in the list of Scheduled Castes. But the National Commission of Scheduled Castes headed by Dr. Buta Singh has said this can be done only through a fresh set of quotas. This will not be possible unless the Supreme Court raises the limits of reservations above 50 per cent. Effectively, government, court and commissions have been passing the buck to each other while millions of Dalit Christians and Muslims suffer a double discrimination.
[VII]. We also call on the Supreme Court to ensure the neutrality of the subordinate judiciary, the district magistracy and the State police forces. The Supreme Court must also encourage the rebuilding of Civil Society which is currently in a state of hibernation and has been struck dumb out of fear of the Sangh Parivar. The religious minorities are being demonized as threats to national security, and therefore fit target of Sangh and official terror. Certain sections of the media have also fallen into this trap and are publishing or broadcasting stories without a shred of evidence.
Instead of chastising the few voices of protest from Human rights activists such as Ms. Teesta Setalvad, the highest court in the land must help strengthen the civil society and human rights movement in the country which alone can unite the minorities and the marginalised to face the onslaught of the Sangh Parivar, and to help preserve the unity and integrity of secular India.
Released to the media by Mr Sam Joseph, All India Christian Council, Bangaluru. Mobile 9480090324. Dr Dayal can be contacted at 09811021072 and johndayal@vsnl.com.
Monday, February 11, 2008
A Second Postcard from the Kandhamala forests of Orissa -- from John Dayal, 10 February 2008
After another visit – from 3rd February to 7th February 2008 -- to Kandhamala in Orissa, scene of the Christmas 2007 anti Christian violence, and a day long stay in the refugee camp at Barakhama, some major issues of culpability, impunity, and human rights remain unanswered.
Dear Friends
When we first came to the Kandhamala hill district of Orissa India on 29th December 2007, we had thought that the worst had been seen of human nature -- when impelled by political brinkmanship, bigotry, and hatred. My colleagues Advocate Nicholas Barla and Social worker Hemant Nayak and I last week discovered how wrong we were. In a second visit to the Kandhamala we again surveyed the aftermath of the carnage, arson, desecration, and assault of human dignity evident in the Christmas week violence by Hindutva gangs in the forests and villages. This time again, we saw almost every single church, house, school, or building which had been targeted by the mobs, as also the refugee camp in the Barakhama township high school. We had expected some decrease in tension in the villages and hamlets. We thought there would be some evidence of probity and transparency in the criminal investigation and justice delivery system, some compassion in the relief and rehabilitation process, some formal questioning of matters of impunity of police and magistracy, some sense of responsibility in instruments of governance. And we had hoped for some contrition in political parties, and some conscience in the politicians and civil society in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa state.
We were disappointed on every single point. It is only a larger faith in the Indian Constitution, Higher Judiciary and the national civil society that prevents utter frustration and dismay,
I narrate here just a small part of the continuing misery and trauma in the Kandhamala district, for information, and partly for the record, as truth too fades from memory, and from the record books, in the face of a constant deluge of falsehood in a large section of the local media, inventing an anthropological and sociological fiction, and attempts at rewriting the past:
Archbishop Raphael Cheenath, who first came to Orissa close to four decades ago as a priest of the Society of the Divine Word, has described is as a diabolic violence, a conspiracy.
In the aftermath, one sees even in the official response hints of a fascist thesis. The men, who masterminded and inspired the violence, and the fountainhead of the hate, roam the forests free of any restraint, without fear even of the Constitution of India.
THE REFUGEE CAMP AT BARAKHAMA: This is the only refugee camp ever organised in India for Christian victims of communal violence. Forty-two days after the attacks, Archbishop Cheenath is at last allowed to visit his people in the affected area despite my repeated pleas to the State administration. His Eminence Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, the President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, was also barred from coming to Kandhamala to see the situation for himself. He could visit only on 29th January, 2008, more than a month after the atrocities. The District Magistrate has ordered that only the State Government can distribute relief through the Red Cross. NGOs and Church institutions, which were in the vanguard of relief operations in the State during past calamities such as the Super Cyclone, are still not allowed to bring any material. The Government is distributing the very basic level of relief. The people feel that it is not enough to meet their current needs. It does not cover many issues health, hygiene, and human dignity.
In my first visit, I had seen several pregnant women, and at least five very sick men. I ask of them. Three of the men have died since I met them. One of them died of unknown illness. Two others died of injuries they had sustained in the attacks by members of the Sangh Parivar trained and motivated by the self styled Swami Lakhmanananda Saraswati, the local head now of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Whey did these men die in the camp, and not in a hospital in Bhubaneswar or the district capital at Phulbani? No one seems to know. Were the bodies examined in a forensic autopsy to find the cause of death? Apparently not. Have been people been charged with the murder of these two men? The police and magistracy are not telling. Under Indian law, cases of criminal assault or attempted murder automatically, so to say, are re-registered as cases of murder, with clauses of criminal conspiracy added on. No one seems to know if the police have done so and are looking for the murderers.
The plight of the pregnant women and of the women in the camp in general, is possibly worse. Because they are living and have to suffer the pangs of being a woman in an absolutely undeveloped situation. The women have no gynecological experts available on hand, it seems. There are not even toilets for them to go to at night. They have to go out into the fields to answer calls of nature. This, some officials say, is exactly what they do in normal times. But times have changed. When they, and their men folk, go out to the forest, they now face hostile mobs who question their coming out of the camp. The taunts can be dangerous. The Union Government’s police force stands guard, but it only for so long that they can keep the peace. Even the Central police officers are worried what would happen once they leave.
There is no effort at even beginning a process of dialogue and reconciliation.
Quite the contrary.
The Government’s rehabilitation attempt is designed to push the Christian refugees into a Ghetto.
Not all refugees have land of their own. They cannot even buy land in the area even if they want to, because the local people’s minds have been poisoned by the Sangh Parivar. The district administration therefore wants many dozens of them to be settled in a Christian conclave with about 400 square feet of land for a two room house each – with a kitchenette, but of course, without a toilet.
The administration however has not been able to find even this plot of land for them, because the villagers do not allow the Tehsildar, the junior revenue magistrate to even measure out the land from the tracts owned by the government. The last time this officer, called a Tehsildar, dared go to measure the land, the link chain measure was snatched and he was chased away. The police are sheepish. They had looked on as the majesty of the law retreated in front of the terror of the Sangh Parivar’s goons. And so the refugees stay in the safety of the camp, under tents, in the cold, without too many blankets. And without toilets.
THE PLIGHT OF STUDENTS: Repeat visits confirm once again what the Prime Minister of India has been told by the church in their representations. How deep the impact of the violence goes can be gauged by the fact that in the refugee camp and elsewhere, the students face annual exams without books and without stationery. Many of them will miss out on the matriculation and secondary examinations; will have to drop an academic year. The older children may miss out on career opportunities. No one in the administrations seems to care. There is no answer to questions if examinations for these unfortunate students will be postponed for a few months, as was done in Gujarat 2002, or in the aftermath of the Tsunami.
THE CASE OF THE MISSING MEN: Several villages are without men, once the sun sets. Such is the terror of the police against the Christians that the men just cannot sleep in their own homes. They remain in the forested hills.
FORCED CONVERSION TO HINDUISM: A dozen times and more, we hear stories of isolated Christian families being made to shave their head. They are being told to convert to Hinduism. These stories are repeated all the way from Phulbani at one end of the Kandhamala district to Brahminigaon at the other end in the east. Archbishop Cheenath, with whom we travelled to some of the areas to seethe interaction of the people with him, agrees that their most urgent need is security, not only for their personal lives but for their existence in Kandhamala district. “The people are terribly frightened as if they are still expecting another onslaught because the perpetrators of these despicable crimes on the occasion of Christmas are freely moving about, brandishing their weapons and shouting slogans and conducting clandestine meetings. Such were the preparations that ultimately led to this diabolic attack. And in some areas, in spite of the presence of the so-called force, looting is still going on from the vandalized locations.The Sangh Parivar organised several ‘jagna’ or prayer assemblies where hate is spewed against Christians.
A more detailed questioning of eye-witnesses, and going through copies of several affidavits and First Information Reports that have been posted to senior officers because the local police do not register the complaints, makes it is clear that the attacks were orchestrated and involved a well trained core cadre which had been given physical training, had been brain washed at secret meetings. Eye witnessed even at the Leprosarium managed by Brothers of the Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teresa confirmed that the attackers had con summed liquor. They had gathered first in small groups in different places, waited for their leaders, and then marched towards their target with loud shuts of their Hindutva slogans. Magistrates present in the leprosarium made off as the mobs collected. The mobs destroyed and burnt everything, and looted all that they could lay their hands on, including live goats, chicken, rabbits and grain and powered milk meant for the patients. Another whistle and they melted away into the forest.
My colleagues and I had published the Non Government White paper earlier in January.
The Christian legal response is slowly taking shape, but not fast enough, and requires senior guidance. Civil society response is still non-existence.
The following questions remain:
Culpability of Central Government
1.1 Intelligence agencies, as also central government agencies working in the area, are culpable for inaction or complicity as the activities of the Sangh Parivar, especially the Bajrang Dal and VHP, RSS were in the open and with aggressive bravado including the final planning and details of the attacks.
1.2 The Honourable Governor has been empowered to ensure peace and good governance of the Scheduled areas under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution. Kandhamala district is a scheduled district. When the violence took place, it should have automatically invoked the gubernatorial action. There is no transparency on the nature of communication between the district authorities and the state government with the Governor.
Culpability of State Government, and especially of its agents in the district, the Collector and Superintendent of Police
1.3 Why did the Superintendent of Police and Collector of Kandhamala district permit the `bandh’ or agitation called by the Kui Vikas Samaj on 25th and 26th December 007 which are Government acknowledged religious holidays of the Christian community.
1.4 The Superintendent of Police and the District Collector had been repeatedly informed by the people and people in position in the Church about the possible attack on them by Sangh Parivar followers of Lakhmanananda Saraswati, but they did not order any preventive or pre-emptive official steps, neither did they arrange for any security measures for the Christian community.
1.5 In Brahminigaon, Balliguda, Darigbadi, Phringia, the Inspector In charge of the Police or the Officer I charge of the police post were aware of the possible attacks on Christians in the areas of their jurisdiction. Despite this prior knowledge, the Sub Divisional Police Office and the Sub Collector who are directly responsible for binding the peace and supervising the law and order situation did not take necessary and appropriate action.
1.6 The state Police intelligence organisations, Criminal Intelligence and investigation units, the Bureau of Intelligence apparently either did not know about the impending clash, or did not understand the significance of the information, or did not bother to inform superior authority..
1.7 What was the role of the Forest department offices and Staff as much o the activities of the Sangh Parivar were taking place there, including training camps, the plot to cut trees to block roads and to cut telephone lines including WLL [wireless local loop village telephone systems which are owned by the Government of India. The telephone structures for mobile phone transmissions that were switched off at strategic times. No action has been taken to trace the criminals.
1.8 The state highways and national highway number 317 passing through the affected were blocked by trees. How do the authorities explain the delay in removing the road blocks, most o which could have been easily done to open access to police forces? What is the total number of trees so felled by the Sangh Parivar? What action ahs the district forest office and his subordinate officers taken? What was the role of the forest rangers
1.9 We understand that the ITDA [Integrated tribal development agency] of the State Government which is directly responsible for the tribal areas should have been informing their superiors, but failed to do so.
1.10 The State Home ministry, which is directly concerned with issues of law and order has a full record of past acts of violence by the Bajrang Dal, VHP, and RSS, and of Lakhmanananda, and has been extremely indulgent towards them. It has also been very kind to his lieutenants Giani Sahu, Ramesh Sahu, Shivnananda Patnaik, Sarupanda Patnaik, Pati.
1.11 How many people have been rendered permanently or temporarily unemployed because of the violence?
1.12 Why the BJP and some other political parties were allowed during the curfew to tour the affected areas.
1.13 What is the status of “”Danda Daba’ [sacred groves] of the ancient religions of the adivasis of the region. Have they been recorded, documented, protected, and preserved. How many hav been destroyed, and why whom. Any cases registered.
1.14 Number of cases registered also under SC and ST Prevention of atrocity act 1989 against aggressors who injured christens and others.
1.15 Has OFRA, the so called Religious Freedom law, been applied against Sangh Parivar., If not, why not?
1.16 There has been gender violence against Christian religious women and other women.
1.17 What action has government taken so far against hate speeches of Saraswati recorded by policemen accompanying the swami after 24th December violence?
1.18 What steps has government taken to improve communications in Kandhamala, including installing more towers for mobile phones and WLL phones?
1.19 Has a case against people been registered s for the death of cow killed in the arson on convent in Balliguda?
1.20 What provision for security has been made once the Central Reserve Police Force leaves?
1.21 Sources of income of the said Swami?
An appendix: As the nation pays tribute to Baba Amte, a most well deserved tribute for his life long service to victims of Leprosy, it is also important to be reminded how some self styled `patriotic’ groups treat others who also serve victims of leprosy, tuberculosis and other communicable diseases deep in the forests of the Kandhamala district of Orissa, India.
From Brother Oscar Tete
Local Superior of the Missionaries of Charity
Shanti Nivas
Srasananda, PO Telapally,
Kandhamala District, Orissa 762 011
Dated 5th February 2008
To The Officer in Charge,
Police Station Sadar, Phulbani
Kandhamala District, Orissa
Re: In the matter of case Number 66 Dated 31.12.2007. Additional First Information Report, without prejudice, in the mater of attack on Brothers of Missionaries of Charity running the Shanti Nivas home for Tuberculosis patients and Leprosy afflicted persons, and looting and destruction of property in arson and violence on Christmas day 25th December 2007, on the above mentioned Medical centre buildings, Brother’ residence, Catholic Chapel, Shrine of the Blessed Mother Mary, Dispensary, food godown, and theft of medicines, materials, goats, rabbits and other animals. Also, the destruction and disruption of the telephone and electric connections, and destruction of the government property of the WLL phone system.
Sir,
We had on 2nd January 2008 filed a complaints with PS Sadar Phulbani on the above mentioned attack on me and my fellow Brothers and medical centre inmates, as also on our home, medial centre and other buildings, large scale arson and destruction of all property, and looting of our goods, materials, food, animals, and dispersal of our patients under duress in the presence of the a magistrate and three policemen including the OIC and a head constable together with over 20 Home Guards. At the time of the attack by local members of the RSS as well as outsiders belonging to the same group which are followers of one Lakhmanananda Saraswati with his ashram at Chokapada, we had to run away for our lives as we were being chased by many of these people who were pelting stones at us and threatening us with sharp edged weapons and fire arms.
At that time, to our surprise, the police also told the local villagers who were near the Chapel on Christmas day to also run away and leave the village.
In that frame of mind and in utter fear of our lives, we with great difficultly; were able to at last file a basic report with the police on 2nd January 2008. In our fear of that time and our anxiety, the report was very basic and incomplete because the situation continued to be very tense and we were fearful even to come to the police station lest we be assaulted once again.
Now we have surveyed the damage done and the impact of the violence on Shanti Nivas, and wish to report the full details of the incident and the extent of damage as follows for inclusion in our initial report and complaint.
My name is Brother Oscar Tete, MC, son of Mr. Tintus Tete, resident of Shanti Nivas, Srasananda, District Kandhamala, Orissa since June 2007 an originally resident of Missionaries of Charity General Office, 7 Mansatala Row, Kidderpur, Kolkata, West Bengal. I am the local superior of Shanti Nivas which is located 15 kilometers from Phulbani town and about ten kilometers from Sadar police station on Phulbani-Balliguda road. The Shanti Nivas caters to patients of leprosy, Tuberculosis and other communicable diseases. It is the only medical centre of its kind in Kandhamala district and currently provides free of cost service to about 33 patients [at the time of attack] in the wards and about 20 outpatients every day. The Shanti Nivas complex consists of two wards for 33 patients, twenty beds for general patients like local illness, malnutrition, old age complications and mental retardation. The centre has been functioning without incident since its founding nearly twenty five years ago. All current patients belong to the Hindu religion and to both the Dalit and Tribal communities with whom we have always had excellent relations.
Our complex also consists of a medical godown, food store for the patients, offices, residence for the four MC Brothers, outhouses or the animals including goats and rabbits, chicken etc. We also have ambulances and godowns for our vehicles and stores.
Central to our medical centre was our spiritual space, including a Chapel and a Grotto with a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Chapel and the Grotto had been decorated for Christmas on 24th December 2007 as we were expecting the normal large participation of the local people without exclusion of any community, as also the pious prayerful presence of local believers and faithful. This was the normal practice very year and every year, it was a very joyful occasion enjoyed by all local people. The police, in fact, had always and every year provided us adequate police guards on the occasion.
This year also on 24th December night 2007,a group of Orissa Home guards cam to the Shanti Nivas where local faithful had already gathered by Nine PM for the annual prayer service to mark the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
At 4 pm, I was in Phulbani to make some last minute purchases in the market for Christmas and to provide some Christmas gifts to the Prisoners in Phulbani jail as is our normal annual practice to share the joy of Christmas with all people. I was returning by about 7 pm to Shanti Nivas when I learnt that Churches had been attacked in Brahminigaon by RSS followers of Swami Lakhmanananda Saraswati, who has been spreading hate against Christians. I discovered that the road to Shanti Nivas had been blocked by a group people who were armed with axes and weapons. Some of them were cutting trees down and putting them across the road to block it. I was apprehensive of my security, and was forced to leave my vehicle. The ambulance returned to Phulbani with the driver. I walked to Shanti Nivas.
By the time I reached Shanti Nivas, it was 9 p.m. Knowing that Churches were being attacked in various places in the Kandhamala district, I was apprehensive about the security and well being of the local believers who I knew were present in the chapel attached to the medical centre of Shanti Nivas. I asked a handful of our young believers to stay back with four brothers of the MCs. And I urged the women and children to return to the security and safety of their homes in the villages around. The women and children left reluctantly.
At 11.30 p.m., a group of Orissa Home guards came to Shanti Nivas. They were carrying only lathis.
That night, we cancelled all prayer services for the public, but continued to pray silently and privately for the safety of our villagers and our fellow believers in various parts of Kandhamala who were being attacked.
In the morning of Christmas day 25th December 2007 at 11 a.m., the local villagers who were Christian believers and their friends gathered once again at the Chapel for the prayer service. The prayer service was over by 2.30 noon and the Home guards were present during this entire process.
Around 3.30, a fresh group of Orissa Home guards personnel came to join the existing Home guard along with a Lady Magistrate whose name can be ascertained from the official records, and the OIC, and two policemen. Their names can also be ascertained from the official diaries of the police station.
Around 9.15 p.m., the Lady magistrate called me to her presence where she was sitting near the staircase of the chapel. She asked me to shift the 33 patients to the villages saying “I cannot protect you with only the Home Guards with lathis. I have no rifles and so you shift your patients to the village where they will be safe, and start removing your important possessions”.
I told her it would not be so easy or possible to shift the patients, some of whom were very serious and bed ridden, some were blind and it was difficult to carry them on such long distances on foot to the villages.
The Lady magistrate then told me to shift all the 33 patients to a single room. I did this with great difficulty with the assistance of the young Christians who were with me.
I started removing some personal and important possessions such as clothing and a little cash, bank passbook etc.
While I was doing this, I and my other MC Brothers discovered that the Lady Magistrate and the Police were not to be found, and had apparently deserted us and only the Home Guards remained.
At around 10 p.m. on 25th December 2007, our electric supply was cut, as also the telephone connection which was a government owned WLL connection with its tower attached to the Residence of the MC Brothers on one side of the Shanti Nivas complex.
As the lights went off and the power cut, we came out in fear as never before had the power gone off at this time of the night.
As soon as we came out, we saw a large group of people coming towards us. They were shouting Jai Shri Ram, as also Hindu-Hindu Bhai Bhai. I could hear these slogans clearly. They were also abusing Christians in the foulest language. I saw one of the persons in the front of the aggressors holding a sword like sharp weapon. We started running in fear of our lives from the murderous mob.
But even as the mob was approaching, and later through asking other eye witnesses, we could identify the following persons to be part of the murderous attacking mob. Their names are contained in the list at Annexure I:
We hid on the other wide of the boundary wall and watched in terror and fear as the mob divided into groups as if in a well planned attack. One group came to the grotto which had the statue of Virgin Mary. They smashed the statue and set fire to it using some oil like substance they had brought with them in plastic carriers. They used the same oil to put on the Christmas Crib decoration in front of the Grotto and burnt it, in the process burning a part of the tree branch overhanging the decoration.
Another part of the mob consisting of many people -- some of whom carried more oil in blue and other coloured plastic automobile oil cans -- broke open the door of the chapel. Inside, they smashed the altar and decorations, sprinkled automobile oil on the material and set it on fire. They also broke and destroyed every single statue and paintings on the walls of the chapel, altar, vestry and inner rooms, including copies of the Holy Bible, the Cross and images of Lord Jesus Christ. They then burnt there.
The mob then went to the back of the complex and totally destroyed our Residence, our office, the wards of the patients, the kitchen, the godowns, guest room, drivers room, office and garage. Even the toilets were not spared and the ceramic toilets were broken, the water pipes smashed, the Holy Cross pulled down and table fans, windows and electric fixtures destroyed.
The mob then came down the slope and attacked another area and the medical store, destroying precious and expensive medical equipment, medicines and a stretcher. The ambulance escaped damage because it had been sent to Phulbani.
Some of them then chased our many animals and killed them and carried them away, including rabbits and goats which we had kept. We are attaching tentative list of the goods looted and properties destroyed in Annexure II.
On 26th December 2007, the villagers, who were still very scared and frightened, came to see if we were safe. Seeing all the destruction, they told us they would help us and take care of any patients who came.
We and our patients were provided food by the villagers with the government not helping us at all.
From 26th December 2007 night till the night of 28th December 2007, we spent every night in the forest for fear we would be killed. We returned during the day to take care of the remaining patients.
We are still not able to resume normalcy in the Shanti Nivas nor can we treat our patients. We have reluctantly sent the patients to other centres run by us in Berhampur and other towns.
We still live in daily fear of mortal danger to our life, and injury to our person.
We have not been given any security.
We also do not know the fate of our oral complaints to senior officers.
We also do not know if any of the assailants, who have been identified by us and by the villagers who were eye witnesses, have been arrested by the police.
We are filing this additional report to make it part of the official FIR filed by us on 2nd January 2008.
We deeply regret that even that report was refused to be registered by the police officers at Police Station Sadar giving us vague reasons. We then gave a written copy to senior officers, which was acknowledged OIC PS Sadar on 2nd January 2008.
All that I have stated in this report has been witnessed by my personally.
Brother Oscar Tete MC
Local Superior
Shanti Nivas, Srasananda, Kandhamala District
Orissa
Enclosures
Preliminary list of assailants identified by us.
Assessment of damage to property and material possessions
Dear Friends
When we first came to the Kandhamala hill district of Orissa India on 29th December 2007, we had thought that the worst had been seen of human nature -- when impelled by political brinkmanship, bigotry, and hatred. My colleagues Advocate Nicholas Barla and Social worker Hemant Nayak and I last week discovered how wrong we were. In a second visit to the Kandhamala we again surveyed the aftermath of the carnage, arson, desecration, and assault of human dignity evident in the Christmas week violence by Hindutva gangs in the forests and villages. This time again, we saw almost every single church, house, school, or building which had been targeted by the mobs, as also the refugee camp in the Barakhama township high school. We had expected some decrease in tension in the villages and hamlets. We thought there would be some evidence of probity and transparency in the criminal investigation and justice delivery system, some compassion in the relief and rehabilitation process, some formal questioning of matters of impunity of police and magistracy, some sense of responsibility in instruments of governance. And we had hoped for some contrition in political parties, and some conscience in the politicians and civil society in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa state.
We were disappointed on every single point. It is only a larger faith in the Indian Constitution, Higher Judiciary and the national civil society that prevents utter frustration and dismay,
I narrate here just a small part of the continuing misery and trauma in the Kandhamala district, for information, and partly for the record, as truth too fades from memory, and from the record books, in the face of a constant deluge of falsehood in a large section of the local media, inventing an anthropological and sociological fiction, and attempts at rewriting the past:
Archbishop Raphael Cheenath, who first came to Orissa close to four decades ago as a priest of the Society of the Divine Word, has described is as a diabolic violence, a conspiracy.
In the aftermath, one sees even in the official response hints of a fascist thesis. The men, who masterminded and inspired the violence, and the fountainhead of the hate, roam the forests free of any restraint, without fear even of the Constitution of India.
THE REFUGEE CAMP AT BARAKHAMA: This is the only refugee camp ever organised in India for Christian victims of communal violence. Forty-two days after the attacks, Archbishop Cheenath is at last allowed to visit his people in the affected area despite my repeated pleas to the State administration. His Eminence Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, the President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, was also barred from coming to Kandhamala to see the situation for himself. He could visit only on 29th January, 2008, more than a month after the atrocities. The District Magistrate has ordered that only the State Government can distribute relief through the Red Cross. NGOs and Church institutions, which were in the vanguard of relief operations in the State during past calamities such as the Super Cyclone, are still not allowed to bring any material. The Government is distributing the very basic level of relief. The people feel that it is not enough to meet their current needs. It does not cover many issues health, hygiene, and human dignity.
In my first visit, I had seen several pregnant women, and at least five very sick men. I ask of them. Three of the men have died since I met them. One of them died of unknown illness. Two others died of injuries they had sustained in the attacks by members of the Sangh Parivar trained and motivated by the self styled Swami Lakhmanananda Saraswati, the local head now of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Whey did these men die in the camp, and not in a hospital in Bhubaneswar or the district capital at Phulbani? No one seems to know. Were the bodies examined in a forensic autopsy to find the cause of death? Apparently not. Have been people been charged with the murder of these two men? The police and magistracy are not telling. Under Indian law, cases of criminal assault or attempted murder automatically, so to say, are re-registered as cases of murder, with clauses of criminal conspiracy added on. No one seems to know if the police have done so and are looking for the murderers.
The plight of the pregnant women and of the women in the camp in general, is possibly worse. Because they are living and have to suffer the pangs of being a woman in an absolutely undeveloped situation. The women have no gynecological experts available on hand, it seems. There are not even toilets for them to go to at night. They have to go out into the fields to answer calls of nature. This, some officials say, is exactly what they do in normal times. But times have changed. When they, and their men folk, go out to the forest, they now face hostile mobs who question their coming out of the camp. The taunts can be dangerous. The Union Government’s police force stands guard, but it only for so long that they can keep the peace. Even the Central police officers are worried what would happen once they leave.
There is no effort at even beginning a process of dialogue and reconciliation.
Quite the contrary.
The Government’s rehabilitation attempt is designed to push the Christian refugees into a Ghetto.
Not all refugees have land of their own. They cannot even buy land in the area even if they want to, because the local people’s minds have been poisoned by the Sangh Parivar. The district administration therefore wants many dozens of them to be settled in a Christian conclave with about 400 square feet of land for a two room house each – with a kitchenette, but of course, without a toilet.
The administration however has not been able to find even this plot of land for them, because the villagers do not allow the Tehsildar, the junior revenue magistrate to even measure out the land from the tracts owned by the government. The last time this officer, called a Tehsildar, dared go to measure the land, the link chain measure was snatched and he was chased away. The police are sheepish. They had looked on as the majesty of the law retreated in front of the terror of the Sangh Parivar’s goons. And so the refugees stay in the safety of the camp, under tents, in the cold, without too many blankets. And without toilets.
THE PLIGHT OF STUDENTS: Repeat visits confirm once again what the Prime Minister of India has been told by the church in their representations. How deep the impact of the violence goes can be gauged by the fact that in the refugee camp and elsewhere, the students face annual exams without books and without stationery. Many of them will miss out on the matriculation and secondary examinations; will have to drop an academic year. The older children may miss out on career opportunities. No one in the administrations seems to care. There is no answer to questions if examinations for these unfortunate students will be postponed for a few months, as was done in Gujarat 2002, or in the aftermath of the Tsunami.
THE CASE OF THE MISSING MEN: Several villages are without men, once the sun sets. Such is the terror of the police against the Christians that the men just cannot sleep in their own homes. They remain in the forested hills.
FORCED CONVERSION TO HINDUISM: A dozen times and more, we hear stories of isolated Christian families being made to shave their head. They are being told to convert to Hinduism. These stories are repeated all the way from Phulbani at one end of the Kandhamala district to Brahminigaon at the other end in the east. Archbishop Cheenath, with whom we travelled to some of the areas to seethe interaction of the people with him, agrees that their most urgent need is security, not only for their personal lives but for their existence in Kandhamala district. “The people are terribly frightened as if they are still expecting another onslaught because the perpetrators of these despicable crimes on the occasion of Christmas are freely moving about, brandishing their weapons and shouting slogans and conducting clandestine meetings. Such were the preparations that ultimately led to this diabolic attack. And in some areas, in spite of the presence of the so-called force, looting is still going on from the vandalized locations.The Sangh Parivar organised several ‘jagna’ or prayer assemblies where hate is spewed against Christians.
A more detailed questioning of eye-witnesses, and going through copies of several affidavits and First Information Reports that have been posted to senior officers because the local police do not register the complaints, makes it is clear that the attacks were orchestrated and involved a well trained core cadre which had been given physical training, had been brain washed at secret meetings. Eye witnessed even at the Leprosarium managed by Brothers of the Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teresa confirmed that the attackers had con summed liquor. They had gathered first in small groups in different places, waited for their leaders, and then marched towards their target with loud shuts of their Hindutva slogans. Magistrates present in the leprosarium made off as the mobs collected. The mobs destroyed and burnt everything, and looted all that they could lay their hands on, including live goats, chicken, rabbits and grain and powered milk meant for the patients. Another whistle and they melted away into the forest.
My colleagues and I had published the Non Government White paper earlier in January.
The Christian legal response is slowly taking shape, but not fast enough, and requires senior guidance. Civil society response is still non-existence.
The following questions remain:
Culpability of Central Government
1.1 Intelligence agencies, as also central government agencies working in the area, are culpable for inaction or complicity as the activities of the Sangh Parivar, especially the Bajrang Dal and VHP, RSS were in the open and with aggressive bravado including the final planning and details of the attacks.
1.2 The Honourable Governor has been empowered to ensure peace and good governance of the Scheduled areas under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution. Kandhamala district is a scheduled district. When the violence took place, it should have automatically invoked the gubernatorial action. There is no transparency on the nature of communication between the district authorities and the state government with the Governor.
Culpability of State Government, and especially of its agents in the district, the Collector and Superintendent of Police
1.3 Why did the Superintendent of Police and Collector of Kandhamala district permit the `bandh’ or agitation called by the Kui Vikas Samaj on 25th and 26th December 007 which are Government acknowledged religious holidays of the Christian community.
1.4 The Superintendent of Police and the District Collector had been repeatedly informed by the people and people in position in the Church about the possible attack on them by Sangh Parivar followers of Lakhmanananda Saraswati, but they did not order any preventive or pre-emptive official steps, neither did they arrange for any security measures for the Christian community.
1.5 In Brahminigaon, Balliguda, Darigbadi, Phringia, the Inspector In charge of the Police or the Officer I charge of the police post were aware of the possible attacks on Christians in the areas of their jurisdiction. Despite this prior knowledge, the Sub Divisional Police Office and the Sub Collector who are directly responsible for binding the peace and supervising the law and order situation did not take necessary and appropriate action.
1.6 The state Police intelligence organisations, Criminal Intelligence and investigation units, the Bureau of Intelligence apparently either did not know about the impending clash, or did not understand the significance of the information, or did not bother to inform superior authority..
1.7 What was the role of the Forest department offices and Staff as much o the activities of the Sangh Parivar were taking place there, including training camps, the plot to cut trees to block roads and to cut telephone lines including WLL [wireless local loop village telephone systems which are owned by the Government of India. The telephone structures for mobile phone transmissions that were switched off at strategic times. No action has been taken to trace the criminals.
1.8 The state highways and national highway number 317 passing through the affected were blocked by trees. How do the authorities explain the delay in removing the road blocks, most o which could have been easily done to open access to police forces? What is the total number of trees so felled by the Sangh Parivar? What action ahs the district forest office and his subordinate officers taken? What was the role of the forest rangers
1.9 We understand that the ITDA [Integrated tribal development agency] of the State Government which is directly responsible for the tribal areas should have been informing their superiors, but failed to do so.
1.10 The State Home ministry, which is directly concerned with issues of law and order has a full record of past acts of violence by the Bajrang Dal, VHP, and RSS, and of Lakhmanananda, and has been extremely indulgent towards them. It has also been very kind to his lieutenants Giani Sahu, Ramesh Sahu, Shivnananda Patnaik, Sarupanda Patnaik, Pati.
1.11 How many people have been rendered permanently or temporarily unemployed because of the violence?
1.12 Why the BJP and some other political parties were allowed during the curfew to tour the affected areas.
1.13 What is the status of “”Danda Daba’ [sacred groves] of the ancient religions of the adivasis of the region. Have they been recorded, documented, protected, and preserved. How many hav been destroyed, and why whom. Any cases registered.
1.14 Number of cases registered also under SC and ST Prevention of atrocity act 1989 against aggressors who injured christens and others.
1.15 Has OFRA, the so called Religious Freedom law, been applied against Sangh Parivar., If not, why not?
1.16 There has been gender violence against Christian religious women and other women.
1.17 What action has government taken so far against hate speeches of Saraswati recorded by policemen accompanying the swami after 24th December violence?
1.18 What steps has government taken to improve communications in Kandhamala, including installing more towers for mobile phones and WLL phones?
1.19 Has a case against people been registered s for the death of cow killed in the arson on convent in Balliguda?
1.20 What provision for security has been made once the Central Reserve Police Force leaves?
1.21 Sources of income of the said Swami?
An appendix: As the nation pays tribute to Baba Amte, a most well deserved tribute for his life long service to victims of Leprosy, it is also important to be reminded how some self styled `patriotic’ groups treat others who also serve victims of leprosy, tuberculosis and other communicable diseases deep in the forests of the Kandhamala district of Orissa, India.
From Brother Oscar Tete
Local Superior of the Missionaries of Charity
Shanti Nivas
Srasananda, PO Telapally,
Kandhamala District, Orissa 762 011
Dated 5th February 2008
To The Officer in Charge,
Police Station Sadar, Phulbani
Kandhamala District, Orissa
Re: In the matter of case Number 66 Dated 31.12.2007. Additional First Information Report, without prejudice, in the mater of attack on Brothers of Missionaries of Charity running the Shanti Nivas home for Tuberculosis patients and Leprosy afflicted persons, and looting and destruction of property in arson and violence on Christmas day 25th December 2007, on the above mentioned Medical centre buildings, Brother’ residence, Catholic Chapel, Shrine of the Blessed Mother Mary, Dispensary, food godown, and theft of medicines, materials, goats, rabbits and other animals. Also, the destruction and disruption of the telephone and electric connections, and destruction of the government property of the WLL phone system.
Sir,
We had on 2nd January 2008 filed a complaints with PS Sadar Phulbani on the above mentioned attack on me and my fellow Brothers and medical centre inmates, as also on our home, medial centre and other buildings, large scale arson and destruction of all property, and looting of our goods, materials, food, animals, and dispersal of our patients under duress in the presence of the a magistrate and three policemen including the OIC and a head constable together with over 20 Home Guards. At the time of the attack by local members of the RSS as well as outsiders belonging to the same group which are followers of one Lakhmanananda Saraswati with his ashram at Chokapada, we had to run away for our lives as we were being chased by many of these people who were pelting stones at us and threatening us with sharp edged weapons and fire arms.
At that time, to our surprise, the police also told the local villagers who were near the Chapel on Christmas day to also run away and leave the village.
In that frame of mind and in utter fear of our lives, we with great difficultly; were able to at last file a basic report with the police on 2nd January 2008. In our fear of that time and our anxiety, the report was very basic and incomplete because the situation continued to be very tense and we were fearful even to come to the police station lest we be assaulted once again.
Now we have surveyed the damage done and the impact of the violence on Shanti Nivas, and wish to report the full details of the incident and the extent of damage as follows for inclusion in our initial report and complaint.
My name is Brother Oscar Tete, MC, son of Mr. Tintus Tete, resident of Shanti Nivas, Srasananda, District Kandhamala, Orissa since June 2007 an originally resident of Missionaries of Charity General Office, 7 Mansatala Row, Kidderpur, Kolkata, West Bengal. I am the local superior of Shanti Nivas which is located 15 kilometers from Phulbani town and about ten kilometers from Sadar police station on Phulbani-Balliguda road. The Shanti Nivas caters to patients of leprosy, Tuberculosis and other communicable diseases. It is the only medical centre of its kind in Kandhamala district and currently provides free of cost service to about 33 patients [at the time of attack] in the wards and about 20 outpatients every day. The Shanti Nivas complex consists of two wards for 33 patients, twenty beds for general patients like local illness, malnutrition, old age complications and mental retardation. The centre has been functioning without incident since its founding nearly twenty five years ago. All current patients belong to the Hindu religion and to both the Dalit and Tribal communities with whom we have always had excellent relations.
Our complex also consists of a medical godown, food store for the patients, offices, residence for the four MC Brothers, outhouses or the animals including goats and rabbits, chicken etc. We also have ambulances and godowns for our vehicles and stores.
Central to our medical centre was our spiritual space, including a Chapel and a Grotto with a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Chapel and the Grotto had been decorated for Christmas on 24th December 2007 as we were expecting the normal large participation of the local people without exclusion of any community, as also the pious prayerful presence of local believers and faithful. This was the normal practice very year and every year, it was a very joyful occasion enjoyed by all local people. The police, in fact, had always and every year provided us adequate police guards on the occasion.
This year also on 24th December night 2007,a group of Orissa Home guards cam to the Shanti Nivas where local faithful had already gathered by Nine PM for the annual prayer service to mark the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
At 4 pm, I was in Phulbani to make some last minute purchases in the market for Christmas and to provide some Christmas gifts to the Prisoners in Phulbani jail as is our normal annual practice to share the joy of Christmas with all people. I was returning by about 7 pm to Shanti Nivas when I learnt that Churches had been attacked in Brahminigaon by RSS followers of Swami Lakhmanananda Saraswati, who has been spreading hate against Christians. I discovered that the road to Shanti Nivas had been blocked by a group people who were armed with axes and weapons. Some of them were cutting trees down and putting them across the road to block it. I was apprehensive of my security, and was forced to leave my vehicle. The ambulance returned to Phulbani with the driver. I walked to Shanti Nivas.
By the time I reached Shanti Nivas, it was 9 p.m. Knowing that Churches were being attacked in various places in the Kandhamala district, I was apprehensive about the security and well being of the local believers who I knew were present in the chapel attached to the medical centre of Shanti Nivas. I asked a handful of our young believers to stay back with four brothers of the MCs. And I urged the women and children to return to the security and safety of their homes in the villages around. The women and children left reluctantly.
At 11.30 p.m., a group of Orissa Home guards came to Shanti Nivas. They were carrying only lathis.
That night, we cancelled all prayer services for the public, but continued to pray silently and privately for the safety of our villagers and our fellow believers in various parts of Kandhamala who were being attacked.
In the morning of Christmas day 25th December 2007 at 11 a.m., the local villagers who were Christian believers and their friends gathered once again at the Chapel for the prayer service. The prayer service was over by 2.30 noon and the Home guards were present during this entire process.
Around 3.30, a fresh group of Orissa Home guards personnel came to join the existing Home guard along with a Lady Magistrate whose name can be ascertained from the official records, and the OIC, and two policemen. Their names can also be ascertained from the official diaries of the police station.
Around 9.15 p.m., the Lady magistrate called me to her presence where she was sitting near the staircase of the chapel. She asked me to shift the 33 patients to the villages saying “I cannot protect you with only the Home Guards with lathis. I have no rifles and so you shift your patients to the village where they will be safe, and start removing your important possessions”.
I told her it would not be so easy or possible to shift the patients, some of whom were very serious and bed ridden, some were blind and it was difficult to carry them on such long distances on foot to the villages.
The Lady magistrate then told me to shift all the 33 patients to a single room. I did this with great difficulty with the assistance of the young Christians who were with me.
I started removing some personal and important possessions such as clothing and a little cash, bank passbook etc.
While I was doing this, I and my other MC Brothers discovered that the Lady Magistrate and the Police were not to be found, and had apparently deserted us and only the Home Guards remained.
At around 10 p.m. on 25th December 2007, our electric supply was cut, as also the telephone connection which was a government owned WLL connection with its tower attached to the Residence of the MC Brothers on one side of the Shanti Nivas complex.
As the lights went off and the power cut, we came out in fear as never before had the power gone off at this time of the night.
As soon as we came out, we saw a large group of people coming towards us. They were shouting Jai Shri Ram, as also Hindu-Hindu Bhai Bhai. I could hear these slogans clearly. They were also abusing Christians in the foulest language. I saw one of the persons in the front of the aggressors holding a sword like sharp weapon. We started running in fear of our lives from the murderous mob.
But even as the mob was approaching, and later through asking other eye witnesses, we could identify the following persons to be part of the murderous attacking mob. Their names are contained in the list at Annexure I:
We hid on the other wide of the boundary wall and watched in terror and fear as the mob divided into groups as if in a well planned attack. One group came to the grotto which had the statue of Virgin Mary. They smashed the statue and set fire to it using some oil like substance they had brought with them in plastic carriers. They used the same oil to put on the Christmas Crib decoration in front of the Grotto and burnt it, in the process burning a part of the tree branch overhanging the decoration.
Another part of the mob consisting of many people -- some of whom carried more oil in blue and other coloured plastic automobile oil cans -- broke open the door of the chapel. Inside, they smashed the altar and decorations, sprinkled automobile oil on the material and set it on fire. They also broke and destroyed every single statue and paintings on the walls of the chapel, altar, vestry and inner rooms, including copies of the Holy Bible, the Cross and images of Lord Jesus Christ. They then burnt there.
The mob then went to the back of the complex and totally destroyed our Residence, our office, the wards of the patients, the kitchen, the godowns, guest room, drivers room, office and garage. Even the toilets were not spared and the ceramic toilets were broken, the water pipes smashed, the Holy Cross pulled down and table fans, windows and electric fixtures destroyed.
The mob then came down the slope and attacked another area and the medical store, destroying precious and expensive medical equipment, medicines and a stretcher. The ambulance escaped damage because it had been sent to Phulbani.
Some of them then chased our many animals and killed them and carried them away, including rabbits and goats which we had kept. We are attaching tentative list of the goods looted and properties destroyed in Annexure II.
On 26th December 2007, the villagers, who were still very scared and frightened, came to see if we were safe. Seeing all the destruction, they told us they would help us and take care of any patients who came.
We and our patients were provided food by the villagers with the government not helping us at all.
From 26th December 2007 night till the night of 28th December 2007, we spent every night in the forest for fear we would be killed. We returned during the day to take care of the remaining patients.
We are still not able to resume normalcy in the Shanti Nivas nor can we treat our patients. We have reluctantly sent the patients to other centres run by us in Berhampur and other towns.
We still live in daily fear of mortal danger to our life, and injury to our person.
We have not been given any security.
We also do not know the fate of our oral complaints to senior officers.
We also do not know if any of the assailants, who have been identified by us and by the villagers who were eye witnesses, have been arrested by the police.
We are filing this additional report to make it part of the official FIR filed by us on 2nd January 2008.
We deeply regret that even that report was refused to be registered by the police officers at Police Station Sadar giving us vague reasons. We then gave a written copy to senior officers, which was acknowledged OIC PS Sadar on 2nd January 2008.
All that I have stated in this report has been witnessed by my personally.
Brother Oscar Tete MC
Local Superior
Shanti Nivas, Srasananda, Kandhamala District
Orissa
Enclosures
Preliminary list of assailants identified by us.
Assessment of damage to property and material possessions
A First Information Report
[John Dayal’s Note: As the nation pays tribute to Baba Amte, a most well deserved tribute for his life long service to victims of Leprosy, it is also important to be reminded how some self styled `patriotic’ groups treat others who also serve victims of leprosy, tuberculosis and other communicable diseases deep in the forests of the Kandhamala district of Orissa, India.]
From Brother Oscar Tete
Local Superior of the Missionaries of Charity
Shanti Nivas
Srasananda, PO Telapally,
Kandhamala District, Orissa 762 011
Dated 5th February 2008
To The Officer in Charge,
Police Station Sadar, Phulbani
Kandhamala District, Orissa
Re: In the matter of case Number 66 Dated 31.12.2007. Additional First Information Report, without prejudice, in the mater of attack on Brothers of Missionaries of Charity running the Shanti Nivas home for Tuberculosis patients and Leprosy afflicted persons, and looting and destruction of property in arson and violence on Christmas day 25th December 2007, on the above mentioned Medical centre buildings, Brother’ residence, Catholic Chapel, Shrine of the Blessed Mother Mary, Dispensary, food godown, and theft of medicines, materials, goats, rabbits and other animals. Also, the destruction and disruption of the telephone and electric connections, and destruction of the government property of the WLL phone system.
Sir,
We had on 2nd January 2008 filed a complaints with PS Sadar Phulbani on the above mentioned attack on me and my fellow Brothers and medical centre inmates, as also on our home, medial centre and other buildings, large scale arson and destruction of all property, and looting of our goods, materials, food, animals, and dispersal of our patients under duress in the presence of the a magistrate and three policemen including the OIC and a head constable together with over 20 Home Guards. At the time of the attack by local members of the RSS as well as outsiders belonging to the same group which are followers of one Lakhmanananda Saraswati with his ashram at Chokapada, we had to run away for our lives as we were being chased by many of these people who were pelting stones at us and threatening us with sharp edged weapons and fire arms.
At that time, to our surprise, the police also told the local villagers who were near the Chapel on Christmas day to also run away and leave the village.
In that frame of mind and in utter fear of our lives, we with great difficultly; were able to at last file a basic report with the police on 2nd January 2008. In our fear of that time and our anxiety, the report was very basic and incomplete because the situation continued to be very tense and we were fearful even to come to the police station lest we be assaulted once again.
Now we have surveyed the damage done and the impact of the violence on Shanti Nivas, and wish to report the full details of the incident and the extent of damage as follows for inclusion in our initial report and complaint.
My name is Brother Oscar Tete, MC, son of Mr Tintus Tete, resident of Shanti Nivas, Srasananda, District Kandhamala, Orissa since June 2007 an originally resident of Missionaries of Charity General Office, 7 Mansatala Row, Kidderpur, Kolkata, West Bengal. I am the local superior of Shanti Nivas which is located 15 kilometers from Phulbani town and about ten kilometers from Sadar police station on Phulbani-Baliguda road. The Shanti Nivas caters to patients of leprosy, Tuberculosis and other communicable diseases. It is the only medical centre of its kind in Kandhamala district and currently provides free of cost service to about 33 patients [at the time of attack] in the wards and about 20 outpatients every day. The Shanti Nivas complex consists of two wards for 33 patients, twenty beds for general patients like local illness, malnutrition, old age complications and mental retardation. The centre has been functioning without incident since its founding nearly twenty five years ago. All current patients belong to the Hindu religion and to both the Dalit and Tribal communities with whom we have always had excellent relations.
Our complex also consists of a medical godown, food store for the patients, offices, residence for the four MC Brothers, outhouses or the animals including goats and rabbits, chicken etc. We also have ambulances and godowns for our vehicles and stores.
Central to our medical centre was our spiritual space, including a Chapel and a Grotto with a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Chapel and the Grotto had been decorated for Christmas on 24th December 2007 as we were expecting the normal large participation of the local people without exclusion of any community, as also the pious prayerful presence of local believers and faithful. This was the normal practice very year and every year, it was a very joyful occasion enjoyed by all local people. The police, in fact, had always and every year provided us adequate police guards on the occasion.
This year also on 24th December night 2007,a group of Orissa Home guards cam to the Shanti Nivas where local faithful had already gathered by Nine PM for the annual prayer service to mark the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
At 4 pm, I was in Phulbani to make some last minute purchases in the market for Christmas and to provide some Christmas gifts to the Prisoners in Phulbani jail as is our normal annual practice to share the joy of Christmas with all people. I was returning by about 7 pm to Shanti Nivas when I learnt that Churches had been attacked in Brahminigaon by RSS followers of Swami Lakhmanananda Saraswati, who has been spreading hate against Christians. I discovered that the road to Shanti Nivas had been blocked by a group people who were armed with axes and weapons. Some of them were cutting trees down and putting them across the road to block it. I was apprehensive of my security, and was forced to leave my vehicle. The ambulance returned to Phulbani with the driver. I walked to Shanti Nivas.
By the time I reached Shanti Nivas, it was 9 p.m. Knowing that Churches were being attacked in various places in the Kandhamala district, I was apprehensive about the security and well being of the local believers who I knew were present in the chapel attached to the medical centre of Shanti Nivas. I asked a handful of our young believers to stay back with four brothers of the MCs. And I urged the women and children to return to the security and safety of their homes in the villages around. The women and children left reluctantly.
At 11.30 p.m., a group of Orissa Home guards came to Shanti Nivas. They were carrying only lathis.
That night, we cancelled all prayer services for the public, but continued to pray silently and privately for the safety of our villagers and our fellow believers in various parts of Kandhamala who were being attacked.
In the morning of Christmas day 25th December 2007 at 11 a.m., the local villagers who were Christian believers and their friends gathered once again at the Chapel for the prayer service. The prayer service was over by 2.30 noon and the Home guards were present during this entire process.
Around 3.30, a fresh group of Orissa Home guards personnel came to join the existing Home guard along with a Lady Magistrate whose name can be ascertained from the official records, and the OIC, and two policemen. Their names can also be ascertained from the official diaries of the police station.
Around 9.15 p.m., the Lady magistrate called me to her presence where she was sitting near the staircase of the chapel. She asked me to shift the 33 patients to the villages saying “I cannot protect you with only the Home Guards with lathis. I have no rifles and so you shift your patients to the village where they will be safe, and start removing your important possessions”.
I told her it would not be so easy or possible to shift the patients, some of whom were very serious and bed ridden, some were blind and it was difficult to carry them on such long distances on foot to the villages.
The Lady magistrate then told me to shift all the 33 patients to a single room. I did this with great difficulty with the assistance of the young Christians who were with me.
I started removing some personal and important possessions such as clothing and a little cash, bank passbook etc.
While I was doing this, I and my other MC Brothers discovered that the Lady Magistrate and the Police were not to be found, and had apparently deserted us and only the Home Guards remained.
At around 10 p.m. on 25th December 2007, our electric supply was cut, as also the telephone connection which was a government owned WLL connection with its tower attached to the Residence of the MC Brothers on one side of the Shanti Nivas complex.
As the lights went off and the power cut, we came out in fear as never before had the power gone off at this time of the night.
As soon as we came out, we saw a large group of people coming towards us. They were shouting Jai Shri Ram, as also Hindu-Hindu Bhai Bhai. I could hear these slogans clearly. They were also abusing Christians in the foulest language. I saw one of the persons in the front of the aggressors holding a sword like sharp weapon. We started running in fear of our lives from the murderous mob.
But even as the mob was approaching, and later through asking other eye witnesses, we could identify the following persons to be part of the murderous attacking mob. Their names are contained in the list at Annexure I:
We hid on the other wide of the boundary wall and watched in terror and fear as the mob divided into groups as if in a well planned attack. One group came to the grotto which had the statue of Virgin Mary. They smashed the statue and set fire to it using some oil like substance they had brought with them in plastic carriers. They used the same oil to put on the Christmas Crib decoration in front of the Grotto and burnt it, in the process burning a part of the tree branch overhanging the decoration.
Another part of the mob consisting of many people -- some of whom carried more oil in blue and other coloured plastic automobile oil cans -- broke open the door of the chapel. Inside, they smashed the altar and decorations, sprinkled automobile oil on the material and set it on fire. They also broke and destroyed every single statue and paintings on the walls of the chapel, altar, vestry and inner rooms, including copies of the Holy Bible, the Cross and images of Lord Jesus Christ. They then burnt there.
The mob then went to the back of the complex and totally destroyed our Residence, our office, the wards of the patients, the kitchen, the godowns, guest room, drivers room, office and garage. Even the toilets were not spared and the ceramic toilets were broken, the water pipes smashed, the Holy Cross pulled down and table fans, windows and electric fixtures destroyed.
The mob then came down the slope and attacked another area and the medical store, destroying precious and expensive medical equipment, medicines and a stretcher. The ambulance escaped damage because it had been sent to Phulbani.
Some of them then chased our many animals and killed them and carried them away, including rabbits and goats which we had kept. We are attaching tentative list of the goods looted and properties destroyed in Annexure II.
On 26th December 2007, the villagers, who were still very scared and frightened, came to see if we were safe. Seeing all the destruction, they told us they would help us and take care of any patients who came.
We and our patients were provided food by the villagers with the government not helping us at all.
From 26th December 2007 night till the night of 28th December 2007, we spent every night in the forest for fear we would be killed. We returned during the day to take care of the remaining patients.
We are still not able to resume normalcy in the Shanti Nivas nor can we treat our patients. We have reluctantly sent the patients to other centres run by us in Berhampur and other towns.
We still live in daily fear of mortal danger to our life, and injury to our person.
We have not been given any security.
We also do not know the fate of our oral complaints to senior officers.
We also do not know if any of the assailants, who have been identified by us and by the villagers who were eye witnesses, have been arrested by the police.
We are filing this additional report to make it part of the official FIR filed by us on 2nd January 2008.
We deeply regret that even that report was refused to be registered by the police officers at Police Station Sadar giving us vague reasons. We then gave a written copy to senior officers, which was acknowledged OIC PS Sadar on 2nd January 2008.
All that I have stated in this report has been witnessed by my personally.
Brother Oscar Tete MC
Local Superior
Shanti Nivas, Srasananda, Kandhamala District
Orissa
Enclosures
Preliminary list of assailants identified by us.
Assessment of damage to property and material possessions
From Brother Oscar Tete
Local Superior of the Missionaries of Charity
Shanti Nivas
Srasananda, PO Telapally,
Kandhamala District, Orissa 762 011
Dated 5th February 2008
To The Officer in Charge,
Police Station Sadar, Phulbani
Kandhamala District, Orissa
Re: In the matter of case Number 66 Dated 31.12.2007. Additional First Information Report, without prejudice, in the mater of attack on Brothers of Missionaries of Charity running the Shanti Nivas home for Tuberculosis patients and Leprosy afflicted persons, and looting and destruction of property in arson and violence on Christmas day 25th December 2007, on the above mentioned Medical centre buildings, Brother’ residence, Catholic Chapel, Shrine of the Blessed Mother Mary, Dispensary, food godown, and theft of medicines, materials, goats, rabbits and other animals. Also, the destruction and disruption of the telephone and electric connections, and destruction of the government property of the WLL phone system.
Sir,
We had on 2nd January 2008 filed a complaints with PS Sadar Phulbani on the above mentioned attack on me and my fellow Brothers and medical centre inmates, as also on our home, medial centre and other buildings, large scale arson and destruction of all property, and looting of our goods, materials, food, animals, and dispersal of our patients under duress in the presence of the a magistrate and three policemen including the OIC and a head constable together with over 20 Home Guards. At the time of the attack by local members of the RSS as well as outsiders belonging to the same group which are followers of one Lakhmanananda Saraswati with his ashram at Chokapada, we had to run away for our lives as we were being chased by many of these people who were pelting stones at us and threatening us with sharp edged weapons and fire arms.
At that time, to our surprise, the police also told the local villagers who were near the Chapel on Christmas day to also run away and leave the village.
In that frame of mind and in utter fear of our lives, we with great difficultly; were able to at last file a basic report with the police on 2nd January 2008. In our fear of that time and our anxiety, the report was very basic and incomplete because the situation continued to be very tense and we were fearful even to come to the police station lest we be assaulted once again.
Now we have surveyed the damage done and the impact of the violence on Shanti Nivas, and wish to report the full details of the incident and the extent of damage as follows for inclusion in our initial report and complaint.
My name is Brother Oscar Tete, MC, son of Mr Tintus Tete, resident of Shanti Nivas, Srasananda, District Kandhamala, Orissa since June 2007 an originally resident of Missionaries of Charity General Office, 7 Mansatala Row, Kidderpur, Kolkata, West Bengal. I am the local superior of Shanti Nivas which is located 15 kilometers from Phulbani town and about ten kilometers from Sadar police station on Phulbani-Baliguda road. The Shanti Nivas caters to patients of leprosy, Tuberculosis and other communicable diseases. It is the only medical centre of its kind in Kandhamala district and currently provides free of cost service to about 33 patients [at the time of attack] in the wards and about 20 outpatients every day. The Shanti Nivas complex consists of two wards for 33 patients, twenty beds for general patients like local illness, malnutrition, old age complications and mental retardation. The centre has been functioning without incident since its founding nearly twenty five years ago. All current patients belong to the Hindu religion and to both the Dalit and Tribal communities with whom we have always had excellent relations.
Our complex also consists of a medical godown, food store for the patients, offices, residence for the four MC Brothers, outhouses or the animals including goats and rabbits, chicken etc. We also have ambulances and godowns for our vehicles and stores.
Central to our medical centre was our spiritual space, including a Chapel and a Grotto with a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Chapel and the Grotto had been decorated for Christmas on 24th December 2007 as we were expecting the normal large participation of the local people without exclusion of any community, as also the pious prayerful presence of local believers and faithful. This was the normal practice very year and every year, it was a very joyful occasion enjoyed by all local people. The police, in fact, had always and every year provided us adequate police guards on the occasion.
This year also on 24th December night 2007,a group of Orissa Home guards cam to the Shanti Nivas where local faithful had already gathered by Nine PM for the annual prayer service to mark the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
At 4 pm, I was in Phulbani to make some last minute purchases in the market for Christmas and to provide some Christmas gifts to the Prisoners in Phulbani jail as is our normal annual practice to share the joy of Christmas with all people. I was returning by about 7 pm to Shanti Nivas when I learnt that Churches had been attacked in Brahminigaon by RSS followers of Swami Lakhmanananda Saraswati, who has been spreading hate against Christians. I discovered that the road to Shanti Nivas had been blocked by a group people who were armed with axes and weapons. Some of them were cutting trees down and putting them across the road to block it. I was apprehensive of my security, and was forced to leave my vehicle. The ambulance returned to Phulbani with the driver. I walked to Shanti Nivas.
By the time I reached Shanti Nivas, it was 9 p.m. Knowing that Churches were being attacked in various places in the Kandhamala district, I was apprehensive about the security and well being of the local believers who I knew were present in the chapel attached to the medical centre of Shanti Nivas. I asked a handful of our young believers to stay back with four brothers of the MCs. And I urged the women and children to return to the security and safety of their homes in the villages around. The women and children left reluctantly.
At 11.30 p.m., a group of Orissa Home guards came to Shanti Nivas. They were carrying only lathis.
That night, we cancelled all prayer services for the public, but continued to pray silently and privately for the safety of our villagers and our fellow believers in various parts of Kandhamala who were being attacked.
In the morning of Christmas day 25th December 2007 at 11 a.m., the local villagers who were Christian believers and their friends gathered once again at the Chapel for the prayer service. The prayer service was over by 2.30 noon and the Home guards were present during this entire process.
Around 3.30, a fresh group of Orissa Home guards personnel came to join the existing Home guard along with a Lady Magistrate whose name can be ascertained from the official records, and the OIC, and two policemen. Their names can also be ascertained from the official diaries of the police station.
Around 9.15 p.m., the Lady magistrate called me to her presence where she was sitting near the staircase of the chapel. She asked me to shift the 33 patients to the villages saying “I cannot protect you with only the Home Guards with lathis. I have no rifles and so you shift your patients to the village where they will be safe, and start removing your important possessions”.
I told her it would not be so easy or possible to shift the patients, some of whom were very serious and bed ridden, some were blind and it was difficult to carry them on such long distances on foot to the villages.
The Lady magistrate then told me to shift all the 33 patients to a single room. I did this with great difficulty with the assistance of the young Christians who were with me.
I started removing some personal and important possessions such as clothing and a little cash, bank passbook etc.
While I was doing this, I and my other MC Brothers discovered that the Lady Magistrate and the Police were not to be found, and had apparently deserted us and only the Home Guards remained.
At around 10 p.m. on 25th December 2007, our electric supply was cut, as also the telephone connection which was a government owned WLL connection with its tower attached to the Residence of the MC Brothers on one side of the Shanti Nivas complex.
As the lights went off and the power cut, we came out in fear as never before had the power gone off at this time of the night.
As soon as we came out, we saw a large group of people coming towards us. They were shouting Jai Shri Ram, as also Hindu-Hindu Bhai Bhai. I could hear these slogans clearly. They were also abusing Christians in the foulest language. I saw one of the persons in the front of the aggressors holding a sword like sharp weapon. We started running in fear of our lives from the murderous mob.
But even as the mob was approaching, and later through asking other eye witnesses, we could identify the following persons to be part of the murderous attacking mob. Their names are contained in the list at Annexure I:
We hid on the other wide of the boundary wall and watched in terror and fear as the mob divided into groups as if in a well planned attack. One group came to the grotto which had the statue of Virgin Mary. They smashed the statue and set fire to it using some oil like substance they had brought with them in plastic carriers. They used the same oil to put on the Christmas Crib decoration in front of the Grotto and burnt it, in the process burning a part of the tree branch overhanging the decoration.
Another part of the mob consisting of many people -- some of whom carried more oil in blue and other coloured plastic automobile oil cans -- broke open the door of the chapel. Inside, they smashed the altar and decorations, sprinkled automobile oil on the material and set it on fire. They also broke and destroyed every single statue and paintings on the walls of the chapel, altar, vestry and inner rooms, including copies of the Holy Bible, the Cross and images of Lord Jesus Christ. They then burnt there.
The mob then went to the back of the complex and totally destroyed our Residence, our office, the wards of the patients, the kitchen, the godowns, guest room, drivers room, office and garage. Even the toilets were not spared and the ceramic toilets were broken, the water pipes smashed, the Holy Cross pulled down and table fans, windows and electric fixtures destroyed.
The mob then came down the slope and attacked another area and the medical store, destroying precious and expensive medical equipment, medicines and a stretcher. The ambulance escaped damage because it had been sent to Phulbani.
Some of them then chased our many animals and killed them and carried them away, including rabbits and goats which we had kept. We are attaching tentative list of the goods looted and properties destroyed in Annexure II.
On 26th December 2007, the villagers, who were still very scared and frightened, came to see if we were safe. Seeing all the destruction, they told us they would help us and take care of any patients who came.
We and our patients were provided food by the villagers with the government not helping us at all.
From 26th December 2007 night till the night of 28th December 2007, we spent every night in the forest for fear we would be killed. We returned during the day to take care of the remaining patients.
We are still not able to resume normalcy in the Shanti Nivas nor can we treat our patients. We have reluctantly sent the patients to other centres run by us in Berhampur and other towns.
We still live in daily fear of mortal danger to our life, and injury to our person.
We have not been given any security.
We also do not know the fate of our oral complaints to senior officers.
We also do not know if any of the assailants, who have been identified by us and by the villagers who were eye witnesses, have been arrested by the police.
We are filing this additional report to make it part of the official FIR filed by us on 2nd January 2008.
We deeply regret that even that report was refused to be registered by the police officers at Police Station Sadar giving us vague reasons. We then gave a written copy to senior officers, which was acknowledged OIC PS Sadar on 2nd January 2008.
All that I have stated in this report has been witnessed by my personally.
Brother Oscar Tete MC
Local Superior
Shanti Nivas, Srasananda, Kandhamala District
Orissa
Enclosures
Preliminary list of assailants identified by us.
Assessment of damage to property and material possessions
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