ALL INDIA CHRISTIAN COUNCILPRESS STATEMENT
Council stands by Church unity, denounces effort to isolate individual churches
Coercing and terrorising a people into submission is not genuine dialogue
[The following is the text of the Statement issued by Dr. Joseph D’ Souza, President, and Dr John Dayal, Secretary General, of the All India Christian Council on the
failure of the Biju Janata Dal – Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government to stop the Ethnic Cleansing of Christians in the State of Orissa. The violence has
continued for more than 45 days since it broke out on 24th August this year. ]
New Delhi/ Hyderabad October 11, 2008
Our community is facing a trial by gun, sword, fire and rapine, the worst crisis it has seen in its 2,000 year old history in India, one of the earliest homelands of
the faith. There is ethnic cleansing of Christians in Orissa where violence continues unabated for 45 day at the hands of bloodthirsty gangs Civil Society identifies
as the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. So far 300 villages have been cleansed of all Christians, the 17,000 or so in government’s refugee camps have been
told they can go home only if they become Hindus. More than 4,000 houses and more than 100 churches have been burnt. Perhaps thirty thousand or more, more than half of
them children are hiding in forests or are living as Internally Displaced Persons. More than 50 have been butchered, often burnt alive. A nun and an uncounted number
of other women have been gang raped. Gender violence was one of the unspoken traumas of the widespread violence in Orissa in December 2007. For all practical
purposes, Orissa seems not to be a part of India where the rule of law operates, and the Indian Constitution remains operative.
Orissa is ruled by a coalition of the Biju Janata Dal and the Bharatiya Janata party [BJP]. The violence has spread to other States ruled by the BJP, including
Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. Other States have not remained untouched, and Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi have also seen
demolition of churches, the maiming or killing of priests.
A Constitutional authority as the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, and the supreme leader of his party, Mr Lal Krishna Advani could have ordered his governments
in the States to act and stop the violence. He chose to remain a silent spectator for more than 40 days. When he spoke at last to condemn the rape of the Nun in
Orissa, he immediately diverted attention from the heinous crime by speaking of `forcible and fraudulent conversions’ during a meeting with some Christian leaders,
called at the behest of a Hindu swami from Rishikesh and some BJP Members of Parliament. The dialogue was neither religious, nor political.There is nothing in these BJP and RSS dialogues that identifies the killers, arsonists and rapists. There is little that puts the onus of the violence where it belongs
– on a political leadership which has conspired with the goons and its police which is guilty both of inaction in saving in the victims, and of participating in the
violence against the Christians.
We are deeply anguished. We see this and similar attempts at `dialogue’ as an insidious and clever way on the eve of the meeting of the National Integration Council to
absolve the BJP of responsibility and to save the goons of its parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh and its militant terrorist organisations, Bajrang
dial and Vishwa Hindu Parishad who run a parallel government in Orissa and other States. The organisations are now facing the wrath of the entire civil society of
India, and of the world.
The All India Christian Council welcomes all dialogue. It is the cornerstone of our everyday life and Christian witness. But a dialogue presupposes free will, a
peaceful platform, a structured agenda, a common goal for peace through mutual respect, understanding and acknowledgement of each other as equals.
The BJP-RSS `dialogue’ exercises in some parts of the country exude the stink of coercion and beating a smaller community into submission and a whittling away of
Constitutional rights. This also becomes a strategy to divide the community and to isolate and target smaller groups, in this case the Believers Church and the New
Life Fellowship, through well placed and motivated media gossip. These churches have pleaded innocence but face a well constructed campaign designed to extinguish
them. We condemn this and affirm the unity and solidarity of the Church in its entire rich diversity of denominations and Rites, from the Catholic to the Episcopal,
Evangelical and Pentecostal groups. Everybody who believes in Christ is a Christian.
We also denounce forcible and fraudulent conversions. They would by definition be illegal, immoral and against the Faith. Five decades of Church documents testify to
this. Conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit. Repeated exercises by the National Minorities Commission and efforts by aggressive governments have failed to provide
a single proven case of forcible or fraudulent for forcible conversion. And yet State guarantees on Freedom of Faith, including the propagation of faith, and human
rights are smothered in calls for moratoriums and brutalised in police harassment.
There should be more dialogue and an encompassing one on all issues so vital to the unity and integrity of India. Religious leaders should dialogue with other
religious leaders in bilateral and multilateral forums. Parliament provides the forum for political dialogue. Civil society is the best platform for a larger
peaceful and continuing dialogue and debate. These are forums we trust. And we call upon them, including the National Integration Council, to act soon to save not just
the Christian community in Orissa, Karnataka and other States, but to save the very Idea of India in all its glorious diversity, its precious secularism and its
civilisation dignity.
Rev Dr. Joseph D SouzaDr John Dayal CONTACT; 9811021072 CATHOLICUNION@GMAIL.COM
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Home Ministers of Orissa, Karnataka must be sacked
5th October 2008
Orissa-like terror stalks Christians in Karnataka interiors; Hindutva vigilante groups stalk Pastors, visitors
State home minister VS Acharya, senior Police officers must be sacked
Police ordering village churches not to hold Sunday worship, submit `Licences’ to hold prayers;
[The following is the text of the Press statement issued to the media in Mangalore, Karnataka, by Dr John Dayal, Secretary General, All India Christian Council, and Member, National Integration Council of the Government of India, after a tour of the rural churches in Dakshina Kannada District of Karnataka on 4th and 5th October 2008]
A two day tour of rural Christian churches in the forested hill villages and plantations of Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka makes it clear that Christians in areas outside the metropolitan areas of Bangalore and Mangalore have lived a life of fear since 14 September not much different from the terror that stalks the Dalits and Tribals of Kandhamal in distant Orissa. Although the violence was only on one day in most places, people fear they may be attacked again anytime in the future.
The devastation of major Catholic and Protestant places of worship in Mangalore city, the attack on women and specially the beating up of Nuns, has correctly shocked the conscience of the majority community in Karnataka and the rest of India as much as has the rape of the Nun in Orissa.
But this other side remains dark, beyond the glare of media. The VHP and the police are making full use of the interlude to ensure that the law cannot take it due course and the culprits who came in well orchestrated attacks will never be caught.
The mocking tone of the State Home Minister, V S Acharya, his pugnacious and continuing oral attacks on the Church and on the Catholic Archbishop and Bishops, his threats to the New Life Church and its pastors, his defence of the Hindutva Parivar, and his encouragement to religious groups to demand bans and moratoriums on `conversions’, clearly show his commitment to the fascist cause.
The formal Constitutional position of Home Minister Acharya is untenable and the Governor and Chief Minister must sack him. Chief Minister, Mr. Yeddiurappa, no less pugnacious in defence of the Hindutva Parivar and in his critique of the Church, would otherwise have shown himself to be condoning a well thought out and planned conspiracy against Christianity in Karnataka, which is one of the ancient homelands of our faith, together with the States of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
I am also surprised that former Deputy prime minister and BJP supremo Mr. Lal Krishna Advani in his meeting with United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in New Delhi, has chosen the occasion to plead that the US reconsider its ban on a visa to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. The US has refused him a visa twice after human rights groups across the globe exposed his complicity in the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. In fact human rights groups have demanded that the US visa of Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik also be similarly revoked for his complicity in the ethnic cleansing of Christians in Kandhamal in violence that has continued now for forty days after it began its second phase on 24th August 2008.
In Karnataka, the simultaneous attacks left at least one pastor grievously hurt and scores injured. Pastor Christu Das of Kayarthada in Belthangandy D-K, escaped being decapitated as he warded off a sword attack with his arm, which now is in thick plaster. His wife, who ran to save him, was also attacked. All that the State did was to give him Rupees One thousand five hundred from the taluk office. He lives a life of terror in his incomplete IPCI church, and has been told not to hold worship services. Visitors going anywhere near him are stopped by goons, some on motorcycles, at the heeds of the road and questioned. The police are nowhere to seen.
At other churches, belonging to Believers Church India, Indian Pentecostal and other Evangelical groups, lone unarmed police or home guards sit, after having told the pastor not to carry on any religious work.
These rural areas are not visited by national teams and political leaders on disaster tourism of the region. Even the senior police and administrative officers have met the wounded only in hospitals and have not visited the devastated churches.
A most peculiar aspect of the entire episode from the time of the violence has been the role of the police. They had come to the churches before violence to warn the pastors to be cautious. They were missing from the spot then the actual violence took place. They appeared at the spot often within minutes of the violence as if they were waiting somewhere close by. At each church, they forced the pastor and his associates to clean up the damage remove broken glass and furniture before the press, sometimes accompanying them, was allowed to take pictures. In one case, attempts were made to wipe out all evidence of attempted arson. What were the police attempting to hide, and who where they attempting to protect. At each place, the assailants came with their faces masked with deadly weapons, and with fuel. When they did not find fuel, they emptied vehicles of pastors of fuel and set them afire.
Taking into consideration that the Rule of Law is inoperative on a widespread level and anarchy is prevalent in the affected Districts of Orissa, and Karnataka, our demands are:
1. To send in, para-drop if necessary, contingents of the Indian army into the Kandhamal district where the writ of the State no longer runs. This must be followed by a total change in the police and civil administration which has proved to be incompetent, partisan, bigoted and tainted at the highest levels. These officers must face criminal prosecution for c0mplicity in heinous crimes, and for dereliction of duty.
2. To sack the Home Ministers of Karnataka and Orissa, together with their senior police and civil officers for their complicity and sympathy with the assailant fascist forces.
4. To proscribe immediately all organisations and individuals carrying out or inciting communal violence, namely, the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad, that have been identified by no less than the National Commission for Minorities as causing disaffection among the communities.
5. To order investigation by Central Bureau of Investigations, not by State commissions, into the circumstances leading to the murder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad vice president Lakhmanananda Saraswati and the organised violence which followed in the wake of the Yatra in which his body was taken along hundreds of kilometers in the district of Kandhamal.
6. Order compensation without delay to the families of those killed in the anti Christian violence and the injured.
THE TOLL
ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE
24 August – 4 October 2008
1. ORISSA
14 Districts hit
300 Villages destroyed
4,400 Houses burnt
50,000 Homeless
59 People murdered
10 Fathers/Pastors/Nuns injured
2 Women gang-rapes confirmed [One Nun]
18,000 Men, women, children injured
151 Churches destroyed
13 Schools, colleges destroyed
2. KARNATAKA
4 Districts affected
22 Churches attacked
20 Nuns, women injured
3. KERALA
3 Churches damaged
4. MADHYA PRADESH
4 Churches damaged
5. DELHI
1 Church destroyed
4 Attempts made
6. TAMAIL NADU 1 Church attacked
7. UTTARAKHAND 2 murdered – aged priest and employee
[Released to the media by Dr John Dayal]
Orissa-like terror stalks Christians in Karnataka interiors; Hindutva vigilante groups stalk Pastors, visitors
State home minister VS Acharya, senior Police officers must be sacked
Police ordering village churches not to hold Sunday worship, submit `Licences’ to hold prayers;
[The following is the text of the Press statement issued to the media in Mangalore, Karnataka, by Dr John Dayal, Secretary General, All India Christian Council, and Member, National Integration Council of the Government of India, after a tour of the rural churches in Dakshina Kannada District of Karnataka on 4th and 5th October 2008]
A two day tour of rural Christian churches in the forested hill villages and plantations of Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka makes it clear that Christians in areas outside the metropolitan areas of Bangalore and Mangalore have lived a life of fear since 14 September not much different from the terror that stalks the Dalits and Tribals of Kandhamal in distant Orissa. Although the violence was only on one day in most places, people fear they may be attacked again anytime in the future.
The devastation of major Catholic and Protestant places of worship in Mangalore city, the attack on women and specially the beating up of Nuns, has correctly shocked the conscience of the majority community in Karnataka and the rest of India as much as has the rape of the Nun in Orissa.
But this other side remains dark, beyond the glare of media. The VHP and the police are making full use of the interlude to ensure that the law cannot take it due course and the culprits who came in well orchestrated attacks will never be caught.
The mocking tone of the State Home Minister, V S Acharya, his pugnacious and continuing oral attacks on the Church and on the Catholic Archbishop and Bishops, his threats to the New Life Church and its pastors, his defence of the Hindutva Parivar, and his encouragement to religious groups to demand bans and moratoriums on `conversions’, clearly show his commitment to the fascist cause.
The formal Constitutional position of Home Minister Acharya is untenable and the Governor and Chief Minister must sack him. Chief Minister, Mr. Yeddiurappa, no less pugnacious in defence of the Hindutva Parivar and in his critique of the Church, would otherwise have shown himself to be condoning a well thought out and planned conspiracy against Christianity in Karnataka, which is one of the ancient homelands of our faith, together with the States of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
I am also surprised that former Deputy prime minister and BJP supremo Mr. Lal Krishna Advani in his meeting with United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in New Delhi, has chosen the occasion to plead that the US reconsider its ban on a visa to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. The US has refused him a visa twice after human rights groups across the globe exposed his complicity in the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. In fact human rights groups have demanded that the US visa of Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik also be similarly revoked for his complicity in the ethnic cleansing of Christians in Kandhamal in violence that has continued now for forty days after it began its second phase on 24th August 2008.
In Karnataka, the simultaneous attacks left at least one pastor grievously hurt and scores injured. Pastor Christu Das of Kayarthada in Belthangandy D-K, escaped being decapitated as he warded off a sword attack with his arm, which now is in thick plaster. His wife, who ran to save him, was also attacked. All that the State did was to give him Rupees One thousand five hundred from the taluk office. He lives a life of terror in his incomplete IPCI church, and has been told not to hold worship services. Visitors going anywhere near him are stopped by goons, some on motorcycles, at the heeds of the road and questioned. The police are nowhere to seen.
At other churches, belonging to Believers Church India, Indian Pentecostal and other Evangelical groups, lone unarmed police or home guards sit, after having told the pastor not to carry on any religious work.
These rural areas are not visited by national teams and political leaders on disaster tourism of the region. Even the senior police and administrative officers have met the wounded only in hospitals and have not visited the devastated churches.
A most peculiar aspect of the entire episode from the time of the violence has been the role of the police. They had come to the churches before violence to warn the pastors to be cautious. They were missing from the spot then the actual violence took place. They appeared at the spot often within minutes of the violence as if they were waiting somewhere close by. At each church, they forced the pastor and his associates to clean up the damage remove broken glass and furniture before the press, sometimes accompanying them, was allowed to take pictures. In one case, attempts were made to wipe out all evidence of attempted arson. What were the police attempting to hide, and who where they attempting to protect. At each place, the assailants came with their faces masked with deadly weapons, and with fuel. When they did not find fuel, they emptied vehicles of pastors of fuel and set them afire.
Taking into consideration that the Rule of Law is inoperative on a widespread level and anarchy is prevalent in the affected Districts of Orissa, and Karnataka, our demands are:
1. To send in, para-drop if necessary, contingents of the Indian army into the Kandhamal district where the writ of the State no longer runs. This must be followed by a total change in the police and civil administration which has proved to be incompetent, partisan, bigoted and tainted at the highest levels. These officers must face criminal prosecution for c0mplicity in heinous crimes, and for dereliction of duty.
2. To sack the Home Ministers of Karnataka and Orissa, together with their senior police and civil officers for their complicity and sympathy with the assailant fascist forces.
4. To proscribe immediately all organisations and individuals carrying out or inciting communal violence, namely, the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad, that have been identified by no less than the National Commission for Minorities as causing disaffection among the communities.
5. To order investigation by Central Bureau of Investigations, not by State commissions, into the circumstances leading to the murder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad vice president Lakhmanananda Saraswati and the organised violence which followed in the wake of the Yatra in which his body was taken along hundreds of kilometers in the district of Kandhamal.
6. Order compensation without delay to the families of those killed in the anti Christian violence and the injured.
THE TOLL
ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE
24 August – 4 October 2008
1. ORISSA
14 Districts hit
300 Villages destroyed
4,400 Houses burnt
50,000 Homeless
59 People murdered
10 Fathers/Pastors/Nuns injured
2 Women gang-rapes confirmed [One Nun]
18,000 Men, women, children injured
151 Churches destroyed
13 Schools, colleges destroyed
2. KARNATAKA
4 Districts affected
22 Churches attacked
20 Nuns, women injured
3. KERALA
3 Churches damaged
4. MADHYA PRADESH
4 Churches damaged
5. DELHI
1 Church destroyed
4 Attempts made
6. TAMAIL NADU 1 Church attacked
7. UTTARAKHAND 2 murdered – aged priest and employee
[Released to the media by Dr John Dayal]
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Orissa group discovers enormity of anti Christian violence in Kandhamal district
Press Release
19/09/2008
Red Cross Society, Bhubaneswar
Observations and Recommendations about continued violence in Kandhamal, Orissa
Civil Society Organisations’ Fact Finding Team
The Civil Society Organisations under ‘Odisha Sadbhavana Manch’ formed a Fact Finding Team which visited Kandhamal district from 12 to 14 September, 2008. The team met with the district administration, personnel’s of police stations, a number of affected villages and relief camps. The team interacted with the victims as well as the in- charges of the relief camps. Seeing the nature and extent of violence, loss of human lives and property, the team proposes certain measures and recommendations for peace building process and constitutional governance in the violence affected areas.
Name of the Fact Finding Members
1-Mr kedar Roy
2-Mr. Mahendra Parida
3-Mr. Radha Mohan Das
4-Mr. N.K Rout
Observations
Through interviews, and spot verification of the riot affected areas – Baliguda, G.Udaygiri, Raikia, Tikabali, Phulbani and Kenwagaon, suggests that the violence was not spontaneous nor sporadic as government says, rather it was well planned and executed accordingly.
Police and Administration: When the violence started there was no police presence in the area and no adequate number of forces was deployed to contain the violence, even after knowing the nature of trouble that was going to take place. The police and administration was clueless as to what to do. Even where a few police men were deployed, they were a silent spectators and allowed the hooligans of VHP and Bajrang Dal to ransack and burn the houses of the Christian Community in front of their eyes. It wasn’t a problem of law and order situation as claimed by the government but it was in connivance of the government and the Sangh Parivar the violence was carried out for more than two weeks.
The Role of the Trader Community: The Dalit community’s progresses in their parallel business with the traders who are of outside the area have angered the traders’ community. Thus the trader community played an active role in spreading the communal violence along with outsiders who did not know Oriya. They were instrumental in threatening the victims, looting cattle and household articles, burning houses and in the re-conversion process. Outsiders were also involved in harassing the Fact Finding Team.
Health and Sanitation: Health and sanitation in most camps remains deplorable barring the camp in Raikia Mission School. Several people had fallen sick, and no proper medication was given to them. Two people in Udayagiri camp died of malaria and diarrhea.
Food: The quantity and quality of rice and Dal provided in the relief camps was inadequate and poor. In most camps the victims had to prepare their own food for which no utensils were given due to which food was not provided on time. Whether children of 2 years or people in their old-age, all had to eat only twice a day and that too lunch at 3.00 pm.
Relief Camps: The relief camps were set up in water-logging areas and this put the people into inconvenience. The tents provided for the victims were not sufficient. The camps are over crowded. There was no safety even to the relief camps. One person who went out of G.Udayagiri camp never returned, later his body was found wrapped in a canny bag and thrown in the pond. Women, children and the sick people are most vulnerable.
Fear Factor: The relief campers refuse to return to their homes fearing for their life. It is also found that most people had no homes to return to as they are burnt to ashes. Even those who want to go back to their village the miscreants are roaming around and threaten the people either to convert to Hinduism or leave their place.
Some facts and figures related to Kandhamal violence:
NAME OF BLOCKS NO. OF VILLAGES NO. OF HOUSEHOLDS AFFECTED
UDYAGIRI 36 640
RAIKIA 55 1391
TIKABALI 25 558
DARINGBADI 3 39
PHIRINGIA 25 428
CHOKAPADA 10 90
PHOLBANI 4 129
BALLIGUDA 18 555
TUMUDIBANDH NOT AVAIILABLE
KOTHAGARH NOT AVAILABLE
K NUAGAM 18 274
TOTAL 194 4104
NO OF PLACES OF WORSHIP DAMAGED 50
NO OF SHOPS DESTROYED IN RAIKIA 10
CONVENTS DESTROYED 4
NO OF BOYS/ GIRLS HOSTEL DESTROYED 5
OTHER INSTITUTIONS DAMAGED 6
NO OF PRIESTS ATTACKED 6
NO OF DECEASED PEOPLE IN UDYAGIRI 26
Recommendations:
The culprits of riots must to be immediately arrested.
Relief camps should continue at least till proper compensation and rehabilitation of the affected people is done.
In all the relief camps there should security arrangements, food and sanitation and heath care has to be improved.
The central government should impose president rule in Orissa.
A special register should be maintained at relief camps.
Police should accept FIR in all police stations in their respective riot affected areas.
Immediate survey of damaged houses should be done by government of Orissa.
Conversion or Re-conversion must be stopped immediately.
Those who are initiating riots should be arrested under 120 (b).
Government should immediately implement land reform in Kandhamal.
19/09/2008
Red Cross Society, Bhubaneswar
Observations and Recommendations about continued violence in Kandhamal, Orissa
Civil Society Organisations’ Fact Finding Team
The Civil Society Organisations under ‘Odisha Sadbhavana Manch’ formed a Fact Finding Team which visited Kandhamal district from 12 to 14 September, 2008. The team met with the district administration, personnel’s of police stations, a number of affected villages and relief camps. The team interacted with the victims as well as the in- charges of the relief camps. Seeing the nature and extent of violence, loss of human lives and property, the team proposes certain measures and recommendations for peace building process and constitutional governance in the violence affected areas.
Name of the Fact Finding Members
1-Mr kedar Roy
2-Mr. Mahendra Parida
3-Mr. Radha Mohan Das
4-Mr. N.K Rout
Observations
Through interviews, and spot verification of the riot affected areas – Baliguda, G.Udaygiri, Raikia, Tikabali, Phulbani and Kenwagaon, suggests that the violence was not spontaneous nor sporadic as government says, rather it was well planned and executed accordingly.
Police and Administration: When the violence started there was no police presence in the area and no adequate number of forces was deployed to contain the violence, even after knowing the nature of trouble that was going to take place. The police and administration was clueless as to what to do. Even where a few police men were deployed, they were a silent spectators and allowed the hooligans of VHP and Bajrang Dal to ransack and burn the houses of the Christian Community in front of their eyes. It wasn’t a problem of law and order situation as claimed by the government but it was in connivance of the government and the Sangh Parivar the violence was carried out for more than two weeks.
The Role of the Trader Community: The Dalit community’s progresses in their parallel business with the traders who are of outside the area have angered the traders’ community. Thus the trader community played an active role in spreading the communal violence along with outsiders who did not know Oriya. They were instrumental in threatening the victims, looting cattle and household articles, burning houses and in the re-conversion process. Outsiders were also involved in harassing the Fact Finding Team.
Health and Sanitation: Health and sanitation in most camps remains deplorable barring the camp in Raikia Mission School. Several people had fallen sick, and no proper medication was given to them. Two people in Udayagiri camp died of malaria and diarrhea.
Food: The quantity and quality of rice and Dal provided in the relief camps was inadequate and poor. In most camps the victims had to prepare their own food for which no utensils were given due to which food was not provided on time. Whether children of 2 years or people in their old-age, all had to eat only twice a day and that too lunch at 3.00 pm.
Relief Camps: The relief camps were set up in water-logging areas and this put the people into inconvenience. The tents provided for the victims were not sufficient. The camps are over crowded. There was no safety even to the relief camps. One person who went out of G.Udayagiri camp never returned, later his body was found wrapped in a canny bag and thrown in the pond. Women, children and the sick people are most vulnerable.
Fear Factor: The relief campers refuse to return to their homes fearing for their life. It is also found that most people had no homes to return to as they are burnt to ashes. Even those who want to go back to their village the miscreants are roaming around and threaten the people either to convert to Hinduism or leave their place.
Some facts and figures related to Kandhamal violence:
NAME OF BLOCKS NO. OF VILLAGES NO. OF HOUSEHOLDS AFFECTED
UDYAGIRI 36 640
RAIKIA 55 1391
TIKABALI 25 558
DARINGBADI 3 39
PHIRINGIA 25 428
CHOKAPADA 10 90
PHOLBANI 4 129
BALLIGUDA 18 555
TUMUDIBANDH NOT AVAIILABLE
KOTHAGARH NOT AVAILABLE
K NUAGAM 18 274
TOTAL 194 4104
NO OF PLACES OF WORSHIP DAMAGED 50
NO OF SHOPS DESTROYED IN RAIKIA 10
CONVENTS DESTROYED 4
NO OF BOYS/ GIRLS HOSTEL DESTROYED 5
OTHER INSTITUTIONS DAMAGED 6
NO OF PRIESTS ATTACKED 6
NO OF DECEASED PEOPLE IN UDYAGIRI 26
Recommendations:
The culprits of riots must to be immediately arrested.
Relief camps should continue at least till proper compensation and rehabilitation of the affected people is done.
In all the relief camps there should security arrangements, food and sanitation and heath care has to be improved.
The central government should impose president rule in Orissa.
A special register should be maintained at relief camps.
Police should accept FIR in all police stations in their respective riot affected areas.
Immediate survey of damaged houses should be done by government of Orissa.
Conversion or Re-conversion must be stopped immediately.
Those who are initiating riots should be arrested under 120 (b).
Government should immediately implement land reform in Kandhamal.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Sangh and SIMI are a terror dipole
All India Christian Council
PRESS STATEMENT
New Delhi, 15 September 2008
Sangh Parivar must be named together with SIMI in national and media discourse on Terrorism in India
Military precision in Karnataka violence exposes deep conspiracy against religious minorities, specially Christian community
The following statement was issued by Dr John Dayal, Secretary General, All India Christian Council this morning on the anti Christian violence in Karnataka State.
The All India Christian Council and the Christian community in India have been apprehending the Sangh Parivar attacks in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. We fear there may be many more in other states including the national capital, New Delhi.
The BJP ruled states have become absolutely inhospitable and indeed hostile to the miniscule Christian community. The Sangh Parivar, which has strengthened itself because of the inaction of the Central Government to act against it, has also made it clear it will also flex its muscles in States ruled by the Congress. Sporadic violence in Andhra Pradesh, attempted desecrations of churches in several other States, and a sustained hate campaign against the community in general and its spokesmen in particular, are indications that the Sangh Parivar is making a major and aggressive thrust to grab absolute power for the Bharatiya Janata party in the General Elections early next year on the Hindutva card.
We are surprised that the Sangh Parivar, specially its militant units Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram are not being mentioned in the national Media and public discourse on terrorism at par with SIMI as groups out to destroy the unity and the secular fabric of India. In fact the Sangh Parivar and the SIMI form a dipole, each feeding on the other and threatening innocent citizens of democratic India for their ulterior political motives. Terror is their common weapon. While the SIMI targets citizens at large, the Sangh focuses on Christians and Muslims.
The military precision of the timing of the attacks on Churches in Mangalore and other Karnataka districts in the violence on Sunday and Monday speaks of long range and meticulous planning, not surprising as the Sangh has a very large number of serving and retired police and administrative officers in its ranks.
The Christian response is always peaceful, but we expect the State, the national secular civil society, and the international community, to come to our defence. India without a Christian community will be no more than a graveyard of democracy and all that is decent in our ancient civilisation.
The State government must assume full responsibility. The Chief Minister of Karnataka has failed to live to his promise of communal harmony. The State Home Minister is guilty of conniving in the violence, as he disregarded ample warnings that had come in the wake of the Sangh violence in Orissa.
As far as the civil and policies authorities of the affected districts are concerned, they are working as if the Sangh Parivar is their real master and not the constitutionally constituted government. Christian youth are being harassed in Mangalore, many are threatened and police are desecrating places of worship by entering them this morning on the pretext of maintaining law and order. This must cease forthwith. The police must hunt for the real criminals – the Sangh Parivar.
We demand the suspension of all senior civil officers of the affected districts and the resignation of the Karnataka Home Minster on moral grounds.
Nothing less will send the correct message that Karnataka, fast slipping into the morass of communal anarchy, is the place where the world must invest.
PRESS STATEMENT
New Delhi, 15 September 2008
Sangh Parivar must be named together with SIMI in national and media discourse on Terrorism in India
Military precision in Karnataka violence exposes deep conspiracy against religious minorities, specially Christian community
The following statement was issued by Dr John Dayal, Secretary General, All India Christian Council this morning on the anti Christian violence in Karnataka State.
The All India Christian Council and the Christian community in India have been apprehending the Sangh Parivar attacks in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. We fear there may be many more in other states including the national capital, New Delhi.
The BJP ruled states have become absolutely inhospitable and indeed hostile to the miniscule Christian community. The Sangh Parivar, which has strengthened itself because of the inaction of the Central Government to act against it, has also made it clear it will also flex its muscles in States ruled by the Congress. Sporadic violence in Andhra Pradesh, attempted desecrations of churches in several other States, and a sustained hate campaign against the community in general and its spokesmen in particular, are indications that the Sangh Parivar is making a major and aggressive thrust to grab absolute power for the Bharatiya Janata party in the General Elections early next year on the Hindutva card.
We are surprised that the Sangh Parivar, specially its militant units Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram are not being mentioned in the national Media and public discourse on terrorism at par with SIMI as groups out to destroy the unity and the secular fabric of India. In fact the Sangh Parivar and the SIMI form a dipole, each feeding on the other and threatening innocent citizens of democratic India for their ulterior political motives. Terror is their common weapon. While the SIMI targets citizens at large, the Sangh focuses on Christians and Muslims.
The military precision of the timing of the attacks on Churches in Mangalore and other Karnataka districts in the violence on Sunday and Monday speaks of long range and meticulous planning, not surprising as the Sangh has a very large number of serving and retired police and administrative officers in its ranks.
The Christian response is always peaceful, but we expect the State, the national secular civil society, and the international community, to come to our defence. India without a Christian community will be no more than a graveyard of democracy and all that is decent in our ancient civilisation.
The State government must assume full responsibility. The Chief Minister of Karnataka has failed to live to his promise of communal harmony. The State Home Minister is guilty of conniving in the violence, as he disregarded ample warnings that had come in the wake of the Sangh violence in Orissa.
As far as the civil and policies authorities of the affected districts are concerned, they are working as if the Sangh Parivar is their real master and not the constitutionally constituted government. Christian youth are being harassed in Mangalore, many are threatened and police are desecrating places of worship by entering them this morning on the pretext of maintaining law and order. This must cease forthwith. The police must hunt for the real criminals – the Sangh Parivar.
We demand the suspension of all senior civil officers of the affected districts and the resignation of the Karnataka Home Minster on moral grounds.
Nothing less will send the correct message that Karnataka, fast slipping into the morass of communal anarchy, is the place where the world must invest.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
OMINOUS DEVELOPMENTS IN ORISSA
ORISSA 2008 FACT SHEET
STATE GOVERNMENT ACQUIESCES IN SANGH PARVIAR PLAN TO WIPE OUT CHRISTIANITY FROM ORISSA]
FOURTH WEEK OF VIOLENCE Sunday 14th September 2008-09-14
[JOHN DAYAL’S NOTE: Late night I had two very disturbing calls interrupting the unceasing messages and rings from Orissa on my two mobile phones. The first was of two serrate gun battles between police and armed mobs. One was a Sangh Parivar posse attacking the Church in Tumuliband and apparently two of the attackers were killed by the police. The second was apparently a Maoist attack on two villages in the Raikia region, and a gun battle was reported still raging.
The second message confirmed something I had been told some days ago – that Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader and surgeon Dr Praveen Togadia {he is still registered, apparently, with the Medical Council] had given a call, almost a contract, to his cadres in Orissa that three prominent Christian leaders, two of them living in Bhubaneswar, had to be `eliminated’. Already, these three have been named in the Oriya language Press, and pamphlets with their names have been distributed in villages in Kandhamal and neighbouring district.
These alarming news came hot on the heels of perhaps even more disturbing reports from the highest quarters in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack [which is home to the state Police headquarters] and confirmed from New Delhi that the State Government which Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik runs in collation with the Bharatiya Janata Party has agreed with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh thesis that the State can move forward only once it is rid of all Christians, specially from Kandhamal and Sundergarh. These are the two districts in the State with a sizable number of Tribals and Dalits. Orissa has just about 2 [two] per cent Christians in its population, less than the national average of 2.4 per cent. It is also India’s third largest Hindu majority state. Coincidently, Kandhamal and Sundergarh are the only two states where the Christian population is more than the State average.
Last night, the police opened fire in Tumuliband, the small town close to the Ashram of the late Vishwa Hindu Parishad vice president Lakhmanananda Saraswati. Apparently, the assailants were bent upon burning the Church and other buildings, so it can be presumed they were not Christians. The second police encounter was with alleged Maoists who attacked two villages in the Raikia-Udaygiri region. I am awaiting details and confirmation.
Needless to say, every single Bishop, Priest, pastor and common man or woman who has communicated with me – I am in Delhi, told by my friends not to come to Kandhamal at this time – has said the people are in a state of abject panic. Every eye-witness account adds to their panic. Prayer is their only strength.
In Delhi we still have no information if any Church organisation has been able to go, or allowed to go, to render assistance to the people, some of whom are positively starving and on the verge of collapse. In December 2007, it was the District Collector who had stopped Christian aid till the Supreme Court overruled him months later. This time, it is the sweep and brutality of the violence.
This is confirmed by what others in authority say.
“What we are witnessing in states like Orissa most recently is a carefully orchestrated ploy by the BJP and its sister organisations to inflame religious prejudices and passions," Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi told her Party’s highest policy making body yesterday. "This has been their (Sangh Parivar's) strategy all along. Every time their position is weakened, every time elections are around the corner, the BJP, RSS, Baring Dale and the VHP launch into the most vicious communal campaign to divide and polarise society, with no regard to loss of lives and livestock," Mrs. Gandhi said
The Supreme Court has asked for a report on the steps taken by the government to protect the lives of the minority Christians. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has announced Rs 3 lakh ex-gratia to each family of those killed. It has also sent 500 Central police personnel, grossly insufficient according to the victims cowering in their villages or still to return.
After we met in a delegation with President Mrs. Pratibha Patil and demanding that Article 355 be invoked and the State government told to act, Union Home minister Shivraj Patil did caution the state government that unless it takes adequate measures to book and punish the persons involved in "such incidents", there is possibility of report of "unfortunate" happenings in future.
The government admits violence has now gripped 13 of Orissa's 30 districts after Lakhmanananda Saraswati and five of his associates were killed on August 23 by Maoists.]
A VIOLENCE SNAPSHOT
STATES AFFECTED: Three --- Orissa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh
IN ORISSA, DISTRICTS AFFEFTED: 14 [Fourteen]
NUMBER OF VILLAGES AFFECTED: 300 [Three Hundred]
NUMBER OF HJOUSES DESTROYED: Over 4,000 [Over Four thousand]
PEOPLE AFFECFTED: Over 50,000 [Fifty Thousand]
HIDNING IN FORESTS About 40,000 [Forty thousand]
IN GOVERNMETN REFUGEE CAMPS: About 12,000 [Twelve Thousand]
IN PRIVATE CAMPS AND HOMES: about 1,000 [One Thousand]
NUMBER OF PERSONS KILLED IN POLICE FIRING: [presumed Non Christian] 2 [Two]
NUMBER OF DEAD MISSING / ABDUCTED: [Christians or staff] estimated: 5 [five]
NUMBER OF DEAD CONFIRMED: 45 [Forty-five]
NUMBER OF PRIESTS / PASTORS / NUNS SERIOUSLY INJURED: 10 [Ten]
NUMBER OF INJURED MEN AND WOMEN: Estimated [18,000, most still in Forests]
NUMBER OF CHUCHES ATTACKED: 56 [Fifty four] and counting
NUMBER OF SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES ATTACKED: 11 [Eleven]
NUMBER OF NGOs ATTACKED: 4[Four]
Detailed fact-sheet available on request from catholicunion@gmail.com
STATE GOVERNMENT ACQUIESCES IN SANGH PARVIAR PLAN TO WIPE OUT CHRISTIANITY FROM ORISSA]
FOURTH WEEK OF VIOLENCE Sunday 14th September 2008-09-14
[JOHN DAYAL’S NOTE: Late night I had two very disturbing calls interrupting the unceasing messages and rings from Orissa on my two mobile phones. The first was of two serrate gun battles between police and armed mobs. One was a Sangh Parivar posse attacking the Church in Tumuliband and apparently two of the attackers were killed by the police. The second was apparently a Maoist attack on two villages in the Raikia region, and a gun battle was reported still raging.
The second message confirmed something I had been told some days ago – that Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader and surgeon Dr Praveen Togadia {he is still registered, apparently, with the Medical Council] had given a call, almost a contract, to his cadres in Orissa that three prominent Christian leaders, two of them living in Bhubaneswar, had to be `eliminated’. Already, these three have been named in the Oriya language Press, and pamphlets with their names have been distributed in villages in Kandhamal and neighbouring district.
These alarming news came hot on the heels of perhaps even more disturbing reports from the highest quarters in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack [which is home to the state Police headquarters] and confirmed from New Delhi that the State Government which Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik runs in collation with the Bharatiya Janata Party has agreed with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh thesis that the State can move forward only once it is rid of all Christians, specially from Kandhamal and Sundergarh. These are the two districts in the State with a sizable number of Tribals and Dalits. Orissa has just about 2 [two] per cent Christians in its population, less than the national average of 2.4 per cent. It is also India’s third largest Hindu majority state. Coincidently, Kandhamal and Sundergarh are the only two states where the Christian population is more than the State average.
Last night, the police opened fire in Tumuliband, the small town close to the Ashram of the late Vishwa Hindu Parishad vice president Lakhmanananda Saraswati. Apparently, the assailants were bent upon burning the Church and other buildings, so it can be presumed they were not Christians. The second police encounter was with alleged Maoists who attacked two villages in the Raikia-Udaygiri region. I am awaiting details and confirmation.
Needless to say, every single Bishop, Priest, pastor and common man or woman who has communicated with me – I am in Delhi, told by my friends not to come to Kandhamal at this time – has said the people are in a state of abject panic. Every eye-witness account adds to their panic. Prayer is their only strength.
In Delhi we still have no information if any Church organisation has been able to go, or allowed to go, to render assistance to the people, some of whom are positively starving and on the verge of collapse. In December 2007, it was the District Collector who had stopped Christian aid till the Supreme Court overruled him months later. This time, it is the sweep and brutality of the violence.
This is confirmed by what others in authority say.
“What we are witnessing in states like Orissa most recently is a carefully orchestrated ploy by the BJP and its sister organisations to inflame religious prejudices and passions," Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi told her Party’s highest policy making body yesterday. "This has been their (Sangh Parivar's) strategy all along. Every time their position is weakened, every time elections are around the corner, the BJP, RSS, Baring Dale and the VHP launch into the most vicious communal campaign to divide and polarise society, with no regard to loss of lives and livestock," Mrs. Gandhi said
The Supreme Court has asked for a report on the steps taken by the government to protect the lives of the minority Christians. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has announced Rs 3 lakh ex-gratia to each family of those killed. It has also sent 500 Central police personnel, grossly insufficient according to the victims cowering in their villages or still to return.
After we met in a delegation with President Mrs. Pratibha Patil and demanding that Article 355 be invoked and the State government told to act, Union Home minister Shivraj Patil did caution the state government that unless it takes adequate measures to book and punish the persons involved in "such incidents", there is possibility of report of "unfortunate" happenings in future.
The government admits violence has now gripped 13 of Orissa's 30 districts after Lakhmanananda Saraswati and five of his associates were killed on August 23 by Maoists.]
A VIOLENCE SNAPSHOT
STATES AFFECTED: Three --- Orissa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh
IN ORISSA, DISTRICTS AFFEFTED: 14 [Fourteen]
NUMBER OF VILLAGES AFFECTED: 300 [Three Hundred]
NUMBER OF HJOUSES DESTROYED: Over 4,000 [Over Four thousand]
PEOPLE AFFECFTED: Over 50,000 [Fifty Thousand]
HIDNING IN FORESTS About 40,000 [Forty thousand]
IN GOVERNMETN REFUGEE CAMPS: About 12,000 [Twelve Thousand]
IN PRIVATE CAMPS AND HOMES: about 1,000 [One Thousand]
NUMBER OF PERSONS KILLED IN POLICE FIRING: [presumed Non Christian] 2 [Two]
NUMBER OF DEAD MISSING / ABDUCTED: [Christians or staff] estimated: 5 [five]
NUMBER OF DEAD CONFIRMED: 45 [Forty-five]
NUMBER OF PRIESTS / PASTORS / NUNS SERIOUSLY INJURED: 10 [Ten]
NUMBER OF INJURED MEN AND WOMEN: Estimated [18,000, most still in Forests]
NUMBER OF CHUCHES ATTACKED: 56 [Fifty four] and counting
NUMBER OF SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES ATTACKED: 11 [Eleven]
NUMBER OF NGOs ATTACKED: 4[Four]
Detailed fact-sheet available on request from catholicunion@gmail.com
OMINOUS DEVELOPMENTS IN ORISSA
ORISSA 2008 FACT SHEET
STATE GOVERNMENT ACQUIESCES IN SANGH PARVIAR PLAN TO WIPE OUT CHRISTIANITY FROM ORISSA
FOURTH WEEK OF VIOLENCE Sunday 14th September 2008
[JOHN DAYAL’S NOTE: Late last night I had two very disturbing calls interrupting the unceasing messages and rings from Orissa on my two mobile phones. The first was of two separate gun battles between police and armed mobs. One of these mobs was a Sangh Parivar posse attacking the Church in Tumuliband, and apparently two of the attackers were killed by the police. The second was said to be a Maoist attack on two villages in the Raikia region, and a gun battle was reported still raging on Sunday.
The second message confirmed something I had been told some days ago – that Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader and surgeon Dr Praveen Togadia [he is still registered, apparently, with the Medical Council] had given a call, almost a contract, to his cadres in Orissa that three prominent Christian leaders, two of them living in Bhubaneswar, had to be `eliminated’. Already, these three men have been named in the Oriya language Press. And pamphlets with their names have been distributed in villages in Kandhamal and neighbouring districts.
These alarming news came hot on the heels of perhaps even more disturbing reports from the highest quarters in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack [which is home to the state Police headquarters] and confirmed from New Delhi. This was a report that the State Government, which Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik runs in coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party, the political wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, agreed with the Sangh thesis that Orissa can move forward only once it is rid of all Christians, specially from Kandhamal and Sundergarh. These are the two districts in the State with a sizable number of Tribals and Dalits. Orissa has just about 2 [two] per cent Christians in its population, less than the national average of 2.4 per cent. Orissa is also India’s third largest Hindu majority state. Coincidently, Kandhamal and Sundergarh are the only two districts where the Christian population is more than the State average.
Last night, the police opened fire in Tumuliband, the small town close to the ashram of the late Vishwa Hindu Parishad vice president Lakshmanananda Saraswati. Apparently, the assailants were bent upon burning the Church and other buildings, so it can be presumed they were not Christians. The second police encounter was with alleged Maoists who attacked two villages in the Raikia-Udaygiri region. I am awaiting details and confirmation.
Needless to say, every single Bishop, priest, pastor and common man or woman who has communicated with me – I am in Delhi, told by my friends not to come to Kandhamal at this time – has said the people are in a state of abject panic. Every eye-witness account adds to their panic. Prayer is their only strength.
In Delhi we still have no information if any Church organisation has been able to go, or allowed to go, to render assistance to the people, some of whom are positively starving and on the verge of collapse. In December 2007, it was the District Collector who had stopped Christian aid till the Supreme Court overruled him months later. This time, it is the sweep and brutality of the violence.
This is confirmed by what others in authority say.
“What we are witnessing in states like Orissa most recently is a carefully orchestrated ploy by the BJP and its sister organisations to inflame religious prejudices and passions," Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi told her Party’s highest policy making body yesterday. "This has been their (Sangh Parivar's) strategy all along. Every time their position is weakened, every time elections are around the corner, the BJP, RSS, Baring Dale and the VHP launch into the most vicious communal campaign to divide and polarise society, with no regard to loss of lives and livestock," Mrs. Gandhi said.
The Supreme Court has asked for a report on the steps taken by the Orissa government to protect the lives of the minority Christians. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has announced Rs 3 lakh ex-gratia to each family of those killed. New Delhi has also sent 500 Central police personnel, grossly insufficient according to the victims cowering in their villages or still to return from their forest refuge.
After we met in a delegation with President Mrs. Pratibha Patil and demanded that Article 355 be invoked and the State government told to act, Union Home minister Shivraj Patil did caution the state government. The Orissa government admits violence has now gripped 13 of the State’s 30 districts after Lakshmanananda Saraswati and five of his associates were killed on August 23 by Maoists.]
A VIOLENCE SNAPSHOT
STATES AFFECTED: Three --- Orissa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh
IN ORISSA, DISTRICTS AFFEFTED: 14 [Fourteen]
NUMBER OF VILLAGES AFFECTED: 300 [Three Hundred]
NUMBER OF HOUSES DESTROYED: Over 4,000 [Over Four thousand]
PEOPLE AFFECTED: Over 50,000 [Fifty Thousand]
HIDING IN FORESTS: About 40,000 [Forty thousand]
IN GOVERNMENT REFUGEE CAMPS: About 12,000 [Twelve Thousand]
IN PRIVATE CAMPS AND HOMES: about 1,000 [One Thousand]
NUMBER OF PERSONS KILLED IN POLICE FIRING: [presumed non-Christian] 2 [Two]
NUMBER OF DEAD MISSING / ABDUCTED: [Christians or staff] estimated: 5 [five]
NUMBER OF DEAD CONFIRMED: 45 [Forty-five]
NUMBER OF PRIESTS / PASTORS / NUNS SERIOUSLY INJURED: 10 [Ten]
NUMBER OF INJURED MEN AND WOMEN: Estimated [18,000, most still in Forests]
NUMBER OF CHURCHES ATTACKED: 56 [Fifty four] and counting
NUMBER OF SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES ATTACKED: 11 [Eleven]
NUMBER OF NGOs ATTACKED: 4[Four]
Detailed fact-sheet available on request from catholicunion@gmail.com
STATE GOVERNMENT ACQUIESCES IN SANGH PARVIAR PLAN TO WIPE OUT CHRISTIANITY FROM ORISSA
FOURTH WEEK OF VIOLENCE Sunday 14th September 2008
[JOHN DAYAL’S NOTE: Late last night I had two very disturbing calls interrupting the unceasing messages and rings from Orissa on my two mobile phones. The first was of two separate gun battles between police and armed mobs. One of these mobs was a Sangh Parivar posse attacking the Church in Tumuliband, and apparently two of the attackers were killed by the police. The second was said to be a Maoist attack on two villages in the Raikia region, and a gun battle was reported still raging on Sunday.
The second message confirmed something I had been told some days ago – that Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader and surgeon Dr Praveen Togadia [he is still registered, apparently, with the Medical Council] had given a call, almost a contract, to his cadres in Orissa that three prominent Christian leaders, two of them living in Bhubaneswar, had to be `eliminated’. Already, these three men have been named in the Oriya language Press. And pamphlets with their names have been distributed in villages in Kandhamal and neighbouring districts.
These alarming news came hot on the heels of perhaps even more disturbing reports from the highest quarters in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack [which is home to the state Police headquarters] and confirmed from New Delhi. This was a report that the State Government, which Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik runs in coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party, the political wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, agreed with the Sangh thesis that Orissa can move forward only once it is rid of all Christians, specially from Kandhamal and Sundergarh. These are the two districts in the State with a sizable number of Tribals and Dalits. Orissa has just about 2 [two] per cent Christians in its population, less than the national average of 2.4 per cent. Orissa is also India’s third largest Hindu majority state. Coincidently, Kandhamal and Sundergarh are the only two districts where the Christian population is more than the State average.
Last night, the police opened fire in Tumuliband, the small town close to the ashram of the late Vishwa Hindu Parishad vice president Lakshmanananda Saraswati. Apparently, the assailants were bent upon burning the Church and other buildings, so it can be presumed they were not Christians. The second police encounter was with alleged Maoists who attacked two villages in the Raikia-Udaygiri region. I am awaiting details and confirmation.
Needless to say, every single Bishop, priest, pastor and common man or woman who has communicated with me – I am in Delhi, told by my friends not to come to Kandhamal at this time – has said the people are in a state of abject panic. Every eye-witness account adds to their panic. Prayer is their only strength.
In Delhi we still have no information if any Church organisation has been able to go, or allowed to go, to render assistance to the people, some of whom are positively starving and on the verge of collapse. In December 2007, it was the District Collector who had stopped Christian aid till the Supreme Court overruled him months later. This time, it is the sweep and brutality of the violence.
This is confirmed by what others in authority say.
“What we are witnessing in states like Orissa most recently is a carefully orchestrated ploy by the BJP and its sister organisations to inflame religious prejudices and passions," Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi told her Party’s highest policy making body yesterday. "This has been their (Sangh Parivar's) strategy all along. Every time their position is weakened, every time elections are around the corner, the BJP, RSS, Baring Dale and the VHP launch into the most vicious communal campaign to divide and polarise society, with no regard to loss of lives and livestock," Mrs. Gandhi said.
The Supreme Court has asked for a report on the steps taken by the Orissa government to protect the lives of the minority Christians. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has announced Rs 3 lakh ex-gratia to each family of those killed. New Delhi has also sent 500 Central police personnel, grossly insufficient according to the victims cowering in their villages or still to return from their forest refuge.
After we met in a delegation with President Mrs. Pratibha Patil and demanded that Article 355 be invoked and the State government told to act, Union Home minister Shivraj Patil did caution the state government. The Orissa government admits violence has now gripped 13 of the State’s 30 districts after Lakshmanananda Saraswati and five of his associates were killed on August 23 by Maoists.]
A VIOLENCE SNAPSHOT
STATES AFFECTED: Three --- Orissa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh
IN ORISSA, DISTRICTS AFFEFTED: 14 [Fourteen]
NUMBER OF VILLAGES AFFECTED: 300 [Three Hundred]
NUMBER OF HOUSES DESTROYED: Over 4,000 [Over Four thousand]
PEOPLE AFFECTED: Over 50,000 [Fifty Thousand]
HIDING IN FORESTS: About 40,000 [Forty thousand]
IN GOVERNMENT REFUGEE CAMPS: About 12,000 [Twelve Thousand]
IN PRIVATE CAMPS AND HOMES: about 1,000 [One Thousand]
NUMBER OF PERSONS KILLED IN POLICE FIRING: [presumed non-Christian] 2 [Two]
NUMBER OF DEAD MISSING / ABDUCTED: [Christians or staff] estimated: 5 [five]
NUMBER OF DEAD CONFIRMED: 45 [Forty-five]
NUMBER OF PRIESTS / PASTORS / NUNS SERIOUSLY INJURED: 10 [Ten]
NUMBER OF INJURED MEN AND WOMEN: Estimated [18,000, most still in Forests]
NUMBER OF CHURCHES ATTACKED: 56 [Fifty four] and counting
NUMBER OF SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES ATTACKED: 11 [Eleven]
NUMBER OF NGOs ATTACKED: 4[Four]
Detailed fact-sheet available on request from catholicunion@gmail.com
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Hindutva's Private Army in Orissa
From John Dayal, 6 September 2008
ORISSA FACT SHEET
The Hindutva private army in Orissa, and its bloody track record [1964-2998]
Since 2000, the Sangh has been strengthened by the Bharatiya Janata Party's coalition government with the Biju Janata Dal.
In October 2002, a Shiv Sena unit in Balasore district declared the formation of the first Hindu 'suicide squad'.
In March 2006, Rath stated that the 'VHP believes that the security measures initiated by the Government [for protection of Hindus] are not adequate and hence Hindu society has taken the responsibility for it'. (In June 2008, Bal Thackeray said, "Hindu suicide squads should be readied to ensure existence of Hindu society and to protect the nation".)
The VHP has 1,25,000 primary workers in Orissa.
The RSS operates 6,000 shakhas with a 1,50,000 plus cadre.
The Bajrang Dal has 50,000 activists working in 200 akharas.
BJP workers number above 4,50,000.
BJP Mohila Morcha, Durga Vahini 7,000 outfits in 117 sites
Rashtriya Sevika Samiti (women’s battalion) 80 centres
Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh 171 trade unions with a cadre of 1,82,000.
Bharatiya Kisan Sangh 30,000 cared in 100 blocks.
Friends of Tribal Society, Samarpan Charitable Trust, Sookruti, Yasodha Sadan, Odisha International Centre. Ekal Vidyalayas, Vanavasi Kalyan Ashrams/Parishads (VKAs), Vivekananda Kendras, Shiksha Vikas Samitis and Sewa Bharatis cement the brickwork for hate and civil polarisation.
Virulent Hindutva campaigns against minority groups reverberated in Rourkela in 1964, Cuttack in 1968 and 1992, Bhadrak in 1986 and 1991, Soro in 1991.
In 1998, 5,000 Sangh activists attacked the Christian dominated Ramgiri - Udaygiri villages in Gajapati district, setting fire to 92 homes, a church, police station, and several government vehicles. Sangh activists entered the local jail forcibly and burned two Christian prisoners to death.
In 1999, Graham Stuart Staines, 58, an Australian missionary and his 10 and 6 year-old sons Timothy and Philips, were torched in Manoharpur village in Keonjhar as they slept in their jeep.
Catholic nun, Jacqueline Mary was gang raped in Mayurbhanj and Fr. Arul Das, a Catholic priest, was murdered in Jamabani, Mayurbhanj.
Churches destroyed in Kandhamal.
In 2002, VHP converted 5,000 people to Hinduism. In 2003, the VKA organised a 15,000-member rally in Bhubaneswar demanding denial of reservations to Christian Adivasis and Dalits.
In 2004, seven women and a male pastor were forcibly tonsured in Kilipal, Jagatsinghpur district, followed by a social and economic boycott of Christians.
In 2004, a Catholic church was vandalised, figures of Mary and Jesus shattered, and the community targeted in Raikia.
In 2005, Gilbert Raj, a Baptist pastor, was murdered and Dilip Dalai, a Pentecostal pastor, stabbed to death at his home in Begunia, Khordha district.
Lakshmanananda Saraswati, murdered on 23 August 2008, pioneered the Hinduisation of Kandhamal since 1969, his men targeting Adivasis, Dalits, Christians and Muslims through socio-economic boycotts and forced conversions to Hinduism.
The 1987-born VKAs men worked to Hinduise Kondh and Kui tribals and polarise relations between them and Christians.
In October 2005, 200 Bonda Christian tribals forcibly converted to Hinduism in Malkangiri.
In 2008, Hindutva discourse named Christians as 'conversion terrorists'.
In the Christmas 2007 attacks, 107 churches were destroyed, five persons killed, over 1,000 houses destroyed.
The August-September 2008 ethnic cleansing continues, and corroborated data is still being compiled.
The Christian population in Kandhamal is 1,17,950 while Hindus [a phrase which includes Tribals who may still be animists] number 5,27,757. Orissa Christians numbered 8,97,861 in the 2001 census – a mere 2.4 percent of the state's population, at par with the national average.
[Culled from Prof Angana Chatterji’s article, Tehelka Magazine September 2008, and other sources]
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