Archbishop Concessao backs Justice Saldanha report

New Delhi 24/02/2011

Welcoming the report released by Justice Saldanha in response to Justice Somasekhara report about the attacks on Christians in 2008 in Karnataka, Archbishop Vincent M. Concessao has asked the government of Karantaka, not to close its eyes to the atrocities on Christians based on the biased Somasekhera Commission report.

Noting that the B.K. Somasekhara report giving a clean chit to the BJP and the Sangh Parivar was eyewash, Archbishop Concessao expressed his total disappointment with the report which smacks of communal underpinnings and only adds insult to injury to the already battered Christian Community in the country.

Retired Judge of the Karnataka High Court Justice Michael Saldanha while calling the Somasekhara Committee report a sham pointed out that the interim report of the same Commission had earlier indicted the Karnataka government. He held that he had enough evidence to prove that the state police had colluded with the right wing Hindu fundamentalist attackers.

In solidarity with the Archbishop of Bangalore and 18 other bishops of the region as well as sharing the pain of the whole Christian community of Karnataka, Archbishop Concessao is also appealing to the Karnataka government to immediately release the innocent Christian youth arrested on the false charges of being involved in communal violence. “We must all have the courage to accept the truth rather than find excuses to cover up our mistakes. This kind of report only emboldens the perpetrators of violence on minority communities”, said Archbishop Concessao.

--Issued by:

Rev. Fr. Dominic Emmanuel

Spokesperson Delhi Catholic Archdiocese

New Delhi -110001

Next Sangh ‘Kumbh’ in Chhattisgarh

After Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh it will be the turn of Chhattisgarh, another BJP-ruled state, to hold the next ‘Kumbh’. The announcement was made on the occasion of the three-day Ma Narmada Samajik Kumbh that concluded on the banks of the Narmada on Saturday. Chief Minister Raman Singh was handed over the mantle for the next event that will be organised keeping in mind the tribal population of Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

The Sangh Parivar has already declared that the first event held in the Dangs district of Gujarat was a huge success, as the pace of reconversion of Christians to Hinduism gathered momentum after 2006.

At the Mandla meet, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said that the Sangh Parivar did not have enough penetration in Orissa where Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati was murdered in 2008 and alleged that conversions to Christianity had increased since then.

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Shabri Kumbh was a success: RSS

The RSS on Friday claimed the Shabri Kumbh held in the Dangs district of Gujarat was a success because the pace of reconversion of Christians to Hinduism had gathered momentum in the area over the last four years.

Besides thousands of ordinary converts who came back to the Hindu fold since 2006, as many as 70 pastors embraced Hinduism and are now busy wooing back those who they had converted to Christianity, Sharad Dhole, the West-South India chief of the Dharma Jagaran wing of the RSS, said.

Dhole said Dangs had been chosen for the first Kumbh because it was the only district in the country to show “an abnormal 200 per cent growth” of the Christian community. He said the former pastors hold the reconversion ceremony every December 25.

The main focus of religious gatherings like these, he said, was to increase awareness and religiosity among people. Lack of religiosity was the main reason for conversion, and not backwardness, he claimed.

To shore up his argument, Dhole cited the examples of two engineers from Maharashtra who had allegedly converted to Christianity in the hope of getting the Green Card because the US government had become very strict after 9/11.

The Sangh is operating more than 10,000 Dharm Jagaran Samitis, Dhole said, adding every village in Mandla, where the three-day Ma Narmada Samajik Kumbh began on February 10, would have such religious committees. The Sangh claimed that about 15,000 Christians had reconverted to Hinduism in the tiny southern district of Gujarat. The Sangh has identified 55 districts in the country where the growth of Christianity and Islam had shown an ‘abnormal’ increase in the 2001 census.

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CM Chouhan assures protection to Christians during Narmada Samajik Kumbh

New Delhi, 9^th February, 2011: The Archbishop of Delhi Catholic Archdiocese, Vincent M. Concessao has welcomed the decision of Madhya Pradesh High Court directing government to provide security to Christians in Mandala, on the eve of the Narmada Samajik Kumbh which begins tomorrow. On a petition filed by Fr. Anand Muttungal in the light of the looming forceful ‘re-conversion’ of Christian tribals in the state by Sangh Parivar, the court has passed the instruction.

A fact finding team which toured the Narmada Valley areas in Mandla district in Madhya Pradesh has found that the Christian community of the entire region encompassing Madhya Pradesh and neighbouring state of Chattisgarh, have strong reasons to fear an outbreak of violence against them during or after the event from cadres of the Sangh Parivar.

The Sangh Parivar has left no one in any doubt that the main reason for organizing the Kumbh, at which they expect two million people is to purge the region of “Christian Missionaries”, whom they accuse of carrying on large scale conversions of tribals, mostly Gonds.

The church leadership in turn had sent urgent representations to the Governor and Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh apprising them of the sinister developments and calling on the State to ensure that they are not persecuted and that there is no outbreak of violence. Sources from Jabalpur area reveal that there will be a major “ghar wapsi” (or re-conversion) to Hinduism of local Christians.

The Christian community, being a minority in the state and country, urged the administration to take timely action of preventing places of worship, institutions and religious personnel. “The administration would be entirely and wholly responsible in case of any undesirable eventuality”, said a memorandum signed by priests, representatives of the Christian community to the State Governor, with copies to the Chief Minister, the divisional and district authorities.

After discussions with office bearers of Isai Mahasangh, the Catholic Bishop of Jabalpur, Rt. Rev. Gerald Almeida was assured by the Government of Madhya Pradesh that no conversion will take place and full security would be given to Christians in Narmada Samajik Kumbh Mela, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan conveyed through National Integration Council Vice-chairman.

--

Issued By:

Fr. Dominic Emmanuel

Spokesperson Delhi Catholic Archdiocese

Protests as taxpayer money is diverted for RSS ‘reconversion’ programme in M.P.

Minority communities and representatives of tribal people see it as a religious conversion event

The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Madhya Pradesh has diverted massive public resources to spruce up physical infrastructure ahead of a major Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) programme in the State this weekend.

The three-day ‘Maa Narmada Saamaajik Kumbh' is being organised by the Dharm Jagaran Vibhag (Religious Revival Department) of the RSS from February 10 to 12. The RSS hopes to mobilise tribals in large numbers from all over the country.

According to Home Department officials who spoke to The Hindu on condition of anonymity, the State government has allotted a whopping Rs.250 crore to the Mandla district administration for developing new roads, repairing existing ones, and ensuring uninterrupted drinking water, electricity and health services during the kumbh in this backward tribal-dominated region.

Though he disputed this figure, Mandla Collector K.K. Khare acknowledged that the State administration was pitching in to ensure that the RSS event went off smoothly. The total funds allotted to various departments in the context of the kumbh were Rs.38 crore, he told The Hindu.

The RSS programme has raised concerns among minority communities and representatives of tribal people, who see it as a religious conversion event. And some in the administration are also worried. Reconversion events such as the ghar vapsi (return to the home-religion) were “certain to be held during the three-day kumbh” and might cause tensions, an official said.

The RSS itself will be spending Rs.6 crore on food, Rs.2 crore on tents, and about Rs.1.5 crore on stationery and promotional items such as religious lockets for distribution among the Adivasis.

Police sources said the RSS had made arrangements for 3,000 buses to bring in tribals and Hindu devotees from all over the country to Mandla.

The tribal Gondwana Ganatantra Party (GGP) and Christian religious leaders have expressed concern over the event and have approached the State government for security arrangements.

“The kumbh, which has no place in tribal cultures, is being used by the RSS to bring tribals under the fold of organised religion. Moreover, we have proof that part of it is being financed with money meant for tribal welfare,” GGP general secretary Amaan Singh Porte told The Hindu.

Two public interest litigations filed in the Madhya Pradesh High Court have alleged that massive public money has been diverted for the event by the ruling BJP government, and have requested the court to stop the kumbh from being held.

“In the name of a social event, RSS activists have been delivering hate speeches, distributing inflammatory pamphlets and calling for reconversion of tribals in the region,” said Father Anand Muthungal, spokesperson of the Madhya Pradesh Catholic Church.

However, Inspector-General (Balaghat range) C.B. Muniraju said tight security arrangements had been put in place and there was no need for worry.

“We are watching people and all sensitive areas, including minority areas, closely. A force of 4,000 constables, four SPs, eight Additional SPs, 30 DSPs, and 150 inspectors and sub-inspectors have been deployed as part of the security arrangements,” he said, adding: “There is no communal angle to this event and I am sure everything will go on smoothly.”

According to local news reports, propagandist pamphlets about the activities of missionaries and posters bearing pictures of Mother Teresa and B.R. Ambedkar with inflammatory messages were being distributed among tribals and Dalits by activists volunteering for the event.

The event is a follow-up of the Shabri Mahakumbh held in the tribal-dominated Dangs district of Gujarat in 2006 under the leadership of controversial religious leader Swami Aseemanand, who was recently connected to the Samjhauta Express blasts.

The meet forms part of a series of such “social congregations” planned to be held over the decade by the RSS along the tribal belt running from the West to the East, as was publicly stated during the Gujarat event.

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MP Christians demand ban on objectionable literature in Mandla

Bhopal, Feb 8 (PTI) A Christian organisation here todaydemanded stopping distribution of pamphlets portraying thecommunity in poor light in Mandla where a three-day HinduSamajik Kumbh will begin on February 10.

"We fear that the distribution of pamphlets may triggeroff another Kandhamal like situation in the tribal-dominatedMandla," Madhya Pradesh Isai Mahasangh convenor, Father AnandMuttungal, told reporters here.

He also objected to the distribution of declarationforms ahead of the Kumbh among the tribals with the intentionto convert them to Hinduism which he said was against MadhyaPradesh Freedom of Religion Act.
"We welcome the Kumbh but want that anti-Christianliterature including that against Mother Teresa should bebanned and seized to ensure that no tension is caused amongthe two communities," he said.
Muttungal said that they wanted to put up a medicalhealth services camp at the Khumb adding the Christians haveorganised such camps in Hindu gatherings in the past inMadhya Pradesh.
In the prelude to the Kumbh, Muttungal said thatdeclaration forms were being distributed among the tribals toconvert them to Hinduism.
He contended that to change religion, one has to seekpermission from the Collector according to the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act which was not being done.

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Kandhamal twin courts set the pace on fast track to justice

Kandhamal : In 2008, a mob led by Manoj Pradhan, the current BJP MLA from Kandhamal, chased down the family of Parikhita Digal, a Dalit Christian who was then 31, and butchered and burned him in front of his wife and two daughters.

A fast-track court in Kandhamal sentenced Pradhan to seven years in jail last year but he got bail from the Orissa High Court, before the Supreme Court last week cancelled the bail, questioning the “favourable treatment” given to the MLA.

For Digal’s wife Kanakrekha Nayak, 28, justice has come in under three years, a record of sorts considering the pace at which cases normally move in the country. “I am satisfied that my husband’s killers have been convicted. I wish others who were part of the mob too had been convicted,” she said.

For many other Dalit Christians scarred by the Kandhamal communal riots, justice has been as fast, with two special courts convicting 279 people, mostly Hindu tribals and non-tribals, in the last two-and-a-half years. Even the National Human Rights Commission has noted how the Kandhamal convictions have outnumbered decisions in all other riot cases in the last 10 years.

The riots had raised so many questions about Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s secular credentials that he severed ties in 2009 with the BJP, till then the Biju Janata Dal’s ally. But what may have gone a longer way in restoring those credentials is his decision, taken the previous year, to start the two fast-track courts for the 800-odd riot cases.

Of 828 FIRs lodged, 790 cases were found to be genuine; of these, 475 cases have had chargesheets filed, with 157 decided and the 279 convictions coming in 58 of these. There is time left to file the chargesheets in the other cases.

“The fast track courts have sped up justice in Kandhamal. Before the end of this year, chargesheets will be filed in the remaining cases,” says V Jayashree, director of public prosecution.

A comparison with the progress in cases elsewhere gives a measure of the pace in Kandmahal. In the Gujarat riots of 2002, the police filed 691 cases, of which 414 were “without merit”. There was just one conviction till 2009, before the trial finally started gathering momentum after the Supreme Court ordered that fast-track courts be set up for retrials in 14 significant cases.

In the November 1989 riots of Bhagalpur, where over 1,000 people were killed and 68 mosques destroyed, trial began only in 2001. Over 300 people have been convicted but 31 cases remain pending.

Police officials and prosecutors said that after the riots, a 50-member police team from the state CID with the help of local police took up the cases, most of them of arson.

“What stood out was the determination of the victims and the support of people who helped in collecting evidence. We were just facilitators,” said state CID chief Abhay. “Though initially people were unwilling to appear as witnesses, they gradually started coming.”

Two additional sessions judges started working from April 2009 and the first conviction came on July 1 that year. Chakradhara Kanhar Mallik, 58, was sentenced to jail for setting fire to the house of Loknath Digal. The convictions that followed included that of BJP MLA Pradhan in two murder cases. Of the 14 cases he was being tried for, four are now pending.

Several others who followed Pradhan’s orders, killing people and burning houses, are in jail. “With the convictions, fear has set in among the rioters,” says Hemant Nayak, a Dalit Christian leader of Raikia.

Some, however, feel the judgments have been coming too fast. Manguli Patra, an RSS leader and state coordinator of the Dharma Jagaran Sammukhya, alleged the same people have been accused in different FIRs at different places at the same time. “How can the same person be present at the same time at two different places which are 45 km apart? The judgments have been a little too fast and intentional,” said Patra, referring to the case of Narayan Mohanty, who has been accused in a nun’s rape as well as the murder of a Dalit Christian the same day.

Home department officials agree that in some cases, people have gone overboard and filed FIRs against people whose names they picked randomly from the voters’ list. Some of these FIRs have been quashed; others accused have been acquitted for lack of evidence.

Even Christian organisations say the real culprits have gone scot-free in some cases and some innocent people been convicted.

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Fast track court convicts 12 in Kandhamal riots case

PHULBANI (ORISSA): Two separate fast track courts here sentenced 12 people to rigorous imprisonment and penalty after convicting them in cases of house burning during the Kandhamal riot in 2008.

While disposing a case relating to house burning of minorities at Lengisuga village under Baliguda police station area during the riot, the fast track court judge C R Das pronounced four years RI and Rs 3,000 penalty to 10 persons of the same village and acquitted four others due to lack of proper evidence.

Similarly, the fast track court-I judge S K Das pronounced three years RI and Rs 3,000 penalty to two persons after finding them guilty in setting fire on the houses of minorities at Ghodabisa village under G Udaygiri police station area.

Both the house burning cases were reported on August 27, 2008, barely four days after killing of the VHP leader Swami Laxamananda Saraswati.

Above 4,000 houses were burnt and 38 people killed in the Kandhamal riot in the aftermath of Saraswati's killing.

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Justice B.K.Somasekhara Commission report

Click here to read the final report of the Justice B.K.Somasekhara Commission, which probed the attacks on churches across Karnataka.

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BJP highjjacked the commission investigating Church attack

Bangalore : Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily today accused the BJP government of having "hijacked" the judicial commission that gave a clean chit to the party and Sangh parivar outfits for attacks on churches in Karnataka in 2008 and said a CBI probe should be ordered into the case.

"Ruling BJP has hijacked the commission and had failed to protect minority Christians in the state," Moily said over the findings of B K Somashekara Commission of Inquiry.

In its final report submitted yesterday, the commission had failed to name the organisations involved in the attacks and hence CBI should be entrusted with the probe, he said.

The attacks on churches in seven districts across the state had caused a major embarrassment to the first-ever BJP government in the south barely four months after it assumed office following which the judicial inquiry was ordered.

Speaking to reporters, Moily demanded that Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa should immediately order a CBI probe as "truth cannot be suppressed and a thief is a thief."

"Just because a commission gave a report, truth cannot be buried, it should come out and the state government should make sincere efforts (towards it)," the former Karnataka chief minister said.

Moily said the commission's final report should be read with the interim report and there were contradictions between the two.

"Always any Commission's final report should be taken into account along with the interim report. In this case, it was very clear in the interim report submitted in February 2010 where there was mention about involvement of Bajarang Dal and failure on the part of police and district administrations in discharging their duties," he claimed.

In its report that came as a relief to BJP, the commission had cited circulation of derogatory literature with "insulting attitude" towards Hindus and issues of conversion as the main reasons for the attacks.

It said there was no basis to the apprehension of the Christian petitioners that politicians from BJP, mainstream Sangh Parivar and state government were directly or indirectly involved in the attacks.

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Law Minister slams probe report on attack on Christians in Karnataka

New Delhi:  Law Minister Veerappa Moily has slammed the probe report on church attacks in Karnataka and called it a "failure."

In some good news for the beleaguered BJP government in Karnataka, the commission set up to investigate a series of attacks on churches in 2008 said on Friday that neither the government nor the police can be faulted.

The report submitted by the one-man commission states: "There is no basis to the apprehension of Christian petitioners that the politicians, BJP, mainstream Sangh Parivar and state government directly or indirectly, are involved in the attacks."

That leaves Karnataka wondering who exactly vandalized its churches in eight different districts. The report dodges that bullet, stating, "The attacks are indulged in by misguided fundamentalist miscreants of defined or undefined groups or organisations against Christians and Christianity who have mistakenly presumed that they would be protected by the party in power with their policies at the relevant time."

In September 2008, churches were vandalized in different parts of Karnataka like Mangalore, Udupi, Kolar, Bellary. 

BK Somasekhara, a former judge, was assigned to investigate the attacks by the newly-elected BJP government which was confronting its first major crisis. 

"This is not an attack on Christians. This is an attack against conversions, against those who hurt Hindu feelings," Mahendra Kumar had said at the time. He was then the convener of the Bajrang Dal and he seemed uninhibited about justifying the offense.     

Christians in the state describe Somasekhara's findings as a please-all pardon.  "It has given a clean chit to everybody. As you are aware, our churches were attacked, innocent people were attacked," said Father Jayanathan, Vicar General, Archdiocese of Bangalore.

The Chief Minister, BS Yeddyurappa, is currently dealing with multiple allegations of corruption and persistent demands for his resignation by the Opposition. There's also a public and shrill war between the government and the Governor of the state, who has sanctioned the Chief Minister's prosecution. So he was cautious in discussing the developments.

"The Home Ministry will examine what the government should do further in this regard. Till then, it's not appropriate to discuss any other point at this stage," he said.

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Hindu terror team targeted Christians: Report

New Delhi : Not just Muslims, Lt Colonel Prasad Srikant Purohit and his Abhinav Bharat also targeted Christians in several locations including Kandhamal in Orissa, North Karnataka, Pune, Jabalpur and Bhopal. And that Malegaon blast accused and Purohit’s key aide Sameer Kulkarni was allegedly behind the killing of two Christians in Orissa in August 2008.

This revelation comes in the Military Intelligence (MI) report of the Army based on the interrogation of Purohit, himself one of the prime accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast and a key link in the Hindu extremist network.

The report, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, said that Malegaon blast co-accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh confronted Purohit during his joint interrogation by MI, the Maharashtra ATS and the Intelligence Bureau at a safe house in Khandala on October 30, 2008.

“She mentioned that the Army officer had met her on October 5, 2008, and confessed to have orchestrated the Malegoan blast, killing of two persons in Orissa in August 2008 and arson in North Karnataka. The officer admitted to having made such statements to Sadhvi Pragya but attributed these outbursts to his boasting about the Malegaon incident. But, later, during the same confrontation he admitted that this outfit had killed two persons in Orissa through Sameer Kulkarni, a full-time activist of Abhinav Bharat,” the MI report stated.

Sameer Kulkarni was called Chanakya by Purohit, a generic name given to those part of the military wing of Abhinav Bharat.

“Responsible for covert operations, the RSS activist was instrumental in breaking influential RSS and VHP workers towards Abhinav Bharat. He is known to be associated with the core group who had undertaken the IED blast in Ajmer in 2007. In March 2008, he accompanied Ramji Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange to Purohit’s residence in Panchmarhi. Police records confirmed his involvement in anti-Christian riots in Pune, Jabalpur and Bhopal. Lt Col Purohit admitted that on behalf of Abhinav Bharat, Sameer killed two Christians in Orissa in August 2008. This act indicated that Lt Col Purohit wanted to establish an organisation with aggressive anti-Christian stance,” the MI report said.

That Abhinav Bharat had become the hub of ultra right Hindu forces is evident from the fact that extremist organisations like Sreeram Sena and Hindustan Rashtriya Sena wanted Purohit’s organisation to merge with their outfits.

“During December 22, 2007-January 2, 2008, Lt Col Purohit participated in a meeting called by Swami Aseemanand at Anil Mahajan’s house in Pune. The meeting was attended by Vilas Pawar of Sreeram Sena, Karnataka, Pramod Muttalik of Hindustan Rashtriya Sena, Bharat Rateshwar aka Bharat Bhai of Gujarat, Dr Seetharamaiah of Andhra Pradesh, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Ajay Rahirkar. During the meeting, Swami Aseemanand made an attempt to merge Abhinav Bharat with existing organisations but consensus could not be reached,” the report stated.

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Press release on Report of Justice Somashekar Enquiry Commission on Church Attacks

January 28, 2011

PRESS RELEASE

Sub: Report of Justice Somashekar Enquiry Commission on Church Attacks

(Comments made on the basis of T.V.Report and before reading the full Commission Report)

We are disappointed that the Enquiry Commission has failed to name and pin point the attackers who attacked the Churches with the plea for lack of evidence, which is incorrect.

1. The attacks were pre-meditated and not spontaneous:

These attacks were not spontaneous in one place but it was a very well planned scheme which the perpertrators could execute simultaneously in different places of the District of Dakshina Kannada and the neighbouring districts. This could have been done only by an Organisation and not an individual.

2. The Government is fully responsible for these attacks which could have been prevented:

The Intellegence Department either was extremely inefficient or in spite of their knowledge which was given to the superiors (Government), the Government has deliberately ignored it knowing fully well such attacks were forthcoming. Therefore the Govt. is to be held fully responsible for these attacks.

3. The evidences given to the Commission and the failure of the Commn.to give justice:

Three types of evidences were given to the Commission by the Victims/different Organisations including the Karnataka Missions Network.

a) Oral evidence by the Victims/Witnesses.

b) Pictures/Videos

c) Telecast Clippings of the Media

In all these evidences, it was abundantly made clear the direct police involvement in supporting the attackers/damaging the Church Properties and beating of Parishioners, inside the Church premises. How could the Commission could so blatantly ignore all these evidences and give a clean chit to the Police, unless there is some hidden agenda or the pressure from the authorities?

The centre of controversy of the start of the attacks was projected to be the book SATYADARSHINI written by Mr.Suryanarayana Paravastu , in Telugu in 1987 and translated into Kannada, a decade later. However, attention was brought on it only after the attacks in 2008(several years after the publication during which period there was no unrest). The Govt.strongly contended in the early stages that this was the main cause of the attacks specifically blaming New Life Churches as having distributed copies of this book, which was never proved at the Enquiry by the Commission though the Sangh Parivar (Bajrang Dal and others) went on alleging that it has hurt the sentiments of Hindu religion. The Commission could not establish these false allegations. Therefore, the very basis of the contention that these attacks were because of the said literature is not tenable. This was only a trumped up excuse to start the attacks with a future plan of action in view. The Sangh Parivar had determined to attack Christians/Churches with the forethought of banning all Christian literature.

As such, we the Christian Community fear that any Christian Literature would be labelled as provocative and the Govt. will go to the extent of banning all types of Christian Literature. This will amount to forcible suppression of practicing and propagating one’s religion which has been enshrined in the Indian Constitution.

4. False accusation of Conversions by force/co-ersion/enticement:

The above accusations are utterly false because there has not been even a single case of such conversion which the Christians know as unlawful. The Commission knows fully well that not even a single such case has been reported anywhere.

5.The Commission is very unfair to the Suffering Christian Community:

We believe that the Commission is fully aware of who the attackers are and also the atrocities committed by the police. But, it has deliberately closed its eyes to the truth. So, we consider the findings of this Commission is just an eye-wash (as desired by the Govt.) especially trying to exonerate the known attackers and thei r sympathizers in the Govt.

6. What next?

We the Christian Community hope that we will get justice and in keeping with the motto of the country – JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL.

CHAIRMAN

Karnataka Missions Network

Church attacks: Panel gives clean chit to BJP, Sangh Parivar

The Justice Somasekhara Commission of Inquiry into a series of attacks on churches in parts of Karnataka in 2008 has given a "clean chit" to the ruling BJP and Sangh Parivar outfits.

"There is no basis to the apprehension of Christian petitioners that politicians, BJP, mainstream Sangh Parivar and state government directly or indirectly are involved in the attacks", the one-man commission said in its final report submitted to the Government today.

According to the report submitted to Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, circulation of derogatory literature with "insulting attitude" against Hindus and issues of conversion were the main reasons behind the attacks.

The churches were attacked in the districts of Mangalore, Udupi, Chikamagalur, Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Bellary and Davangere during September 2008.

The commission found fault with the authority's act of locking the places of worship and preventing devotees from offering prayers as "unprecedented in the history of administrative process and constitutional governance".

Home Minister R Ashok and Law Minister S Suresh Kumar were also present when the report was submitted.

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Supreme court agrees with life sentence for Dara Singh

New Delhi:  The Supreme Court has upheld the life sentence for Dara Singh for killing Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in Orissa in 1999. Singh's accomplice, Mahendra Hembram, has also been sentenced to life in prison.

The CBI wanted the death sentence for Singh, who was linked with Hindu right-wing group Bajrang Dal.

The Staines family was burnt alive in Keonjhar. Graham Staines had worked with leprosy patients in Orissa for 30 years. He was sleeping with his sons, aged 8 and 10, in a car on their way home on a cold December night. A mob in Manoharpur village poured petrol over the Staines' car and set fire to it.

The Staines tried to escape, but a mob of about 50 people allegedly prevented them.

The Supreme Court said, "We hope Mahatma Gandhi's vision of religion playing a positive development integrating into  a prosperous nation will be realized. There is no justification from interfering in someone's belief through force, conversion or false premise that one religion is better than the other."

In 2003, a trial court in Khurda convicted all 13 accused. While Dara Singh was awarded the death sentence, the others were sentenced to life in prison.

In 2005, the Orissa High Court commuted Singh's sentence to life. The High Court convicted Hembram along with Singh, and acquitted 11 others.

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Orthodox school attacked in Jabalpur

A group of rightwing Hindu activists yesterday attacked an Orthodox school in a central Indian town in protest at disciplinary actions against three students, witnesses say.

The group forced their way into the visitors’ room of St. Mary’s Higher Secondary School in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh and shouted anti-Christian slogans, ucanews.com reports.

They then smashed a picture of the Blessed Virgin in the visitors’ room state before staff prevented them from further action.

Another group of nearly 50 young people later went to the school and threatened the staff.

School principal Father K. J. Louis said the troublemakers had been angered by the school for punishing three students for indiscipline.

The police were called and are now being asked to offer protection to the school, the principal told ucanews.com today.

The principal said the school acted against the students after getting their parents’ consent. They had been suspended them for 10 days in November after they were caught setting off firecrackers in the school premises.

Catholic Bishop Gerald Almeida of Jabalpur condemned the incident, which he said was part of an ongoing hate campaign against Christians in the state.

The protests are suspected members of the student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian people’s party) which rules Madhya Pradesh.

Christians and their institutions in the state have witnessed several incidents of violence after the BJP came to power seven years ago.

Since then, more than 180 cases of attacks on Christians have been reported from the state.

The school has started 25 years ago and has some 2,500 students.

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Frustration grows in Orissa

Verdicts from fast track courts in India set up to try cases related to the 2008 anti-Christian violence in Orissa have brought little solace to the victims.
Church workers, lawyers and activists assisting victims say anger and frustration is growing as murderers, rapists, arsonists and looters, walk free, in mockery of the country’s criminal justice delivery mechanism.
Many cases have become laughing matters as shoddy investigations, sham prosecutions and money and muscle that frighten witnesses lead to acquittals.
Vrinda Grover, a Supreme Court lawyer and activist, calls Kandhamal’s fast track courts “sites of speedy injustice.”
Joining her are hundreds of victims such as Nabajini Pradhan, the niece of a tribal chief who was killed for protecting Christians. “They killed and burnt my uncle’s body to destroy evidence. I still cannot understand how the murderers were acquitted,” she says.
Ishar Digal’s mother-in-law was killed and burned but her murders were also acquitted. “We saw my mother-in-law’s killers. Yet there is no evidence.”
Christodas Nayak, whose wife was axed to death, says he is disgusted after a court acquitted 29 of the 31 accused in the case. “There were more than 5,000 people who killed my wife and a neighbor and burned more than 300 houses,” he adds.
Father Manoj Kumar Nayak, a priest working among the victims, says he fails to understand how the justice system works in Orissa. “There are witnesses who testify and even identify the accused in the court, yet the court sees no evidence,” he says.
The Hindu radicals who perpetrated the crimes burned Paul Pradhan’s house and office and forced his wife to become a Hindu. But no one was punished even though Pradhan is a lawyer.
The Orissa administration, he says, claims Kandhamal cases have more convictions than those related to the anti-Muslim cases in Gujarat, western India.
“Such comparison shows the administration is more interested in maintaining statistics than meting out justice.”
Lalita Missal, coordinator of the National Alliance of Women, Orissa Chapter, says the system gives little scope for the victims to present their version of events.
“It is pity the victims have no say in their own cases and have to be at the mercy of the public prosecutors,” she said.
Father Nicholas Barla, tribal activist, warns the Kandhamal acquittals could undermine India’s democracy. “If there is no justice, democracy would be mobocracy (rule of mob) with more crimes and chaos,” he said.
John Dayal, a prominent lay leader in India, says the way the Kandhamal cases are handled has become “a shame on the Indian justice delivery system.”
St. Joseph of Annecy Sister Justine Senapati, who works among the survivors, regrets the little attention given to rape and molestation cases. She wants special courts to try these cases.
Bishop Sarat Chandra Nayak of Berhampur diocese said the large rate of acquittals has alarmed him. He says punishments are “far too minimal” in the few convictions that have been secured. They are so light as to be no deterrent at all, he says.
“Fines should be recovered and given as compensation to the victims, only then will criminals feel the heat.”

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Five Christians killed in a landmine blast in Kandhamal, Orissa

Five Christians, including a pregnant woman and a child, were killed in a landmine blast in Orissa on Saturday.

The blast occurred around 11 p.m. on Saturday at Bamumigam, a village in Kandhamal district, the focus of months-long anti-Christian violence two years ago.

The deceased were returning to their village of Tajungia in an ambulance from a hospital where the woman had gone for checkup. The blast also killed her husband, a health worker and the driver.

Parts of their bodies were found some 500 meters away and the blast created a 10 feet deep crater on the road.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blast but police suspect Maoists. Others suspect other radical groups may be to blame.

The blast is believed to be the first attack on an ambulance in Orissa. A running battle between Maoists and security forces has been going on in the state for some time.

On Nov. 25, Maoists allegedly killed Manoj Kumar Sahu, a contractor, in the same area of the landmine blast.

Church workers have condemned the blast.

“Whatever happened is unfortunate,” said Divine Word Father Nicholas Barla, a tribal activist. Targeting “innocent lives reflects lawlessness and it has to stop,” the priest told ucanews.com on Nov. 29.

Sister Justine Senapti, a human rights activist, said the blast is condemnable whoever was behind it. “Since we cannot create life, we have no right to take it away,” the St. Joseph of Annecy nun added.

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Will Obama tell India to end Hindutva terror?

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US President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle are visiting India in early November 2010. In this connection Obama conveyed to Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna at a reception of Natural History Museum in New York. Obama added that his wife Mrs. Michelle is excited about the trip. Indian leadership is anxiously waiting to welcome the president of global power because of obvious reasons. But the victims of the Hindu’s holocaust are waiting that whether the head of a global power has the courage to ask Indian leadership to end Hindutve Terror. Obamas’ curiosity has its own reasons because of his wife’s first visit of so called secular state but at the same time Americans’ responsible staff should arrange factual briefing, reflecting true Indian face.
The US couple must know that Indian troops so far killed more than 3.2 to 3.4 million Sikhs; more than 120,000 Muslims of the occupied ‘Internationally Disputed Areas of Jammu and Kashmir; more than 500,000 Muslims in general; more than 312,500 Christians; over 15,000 Tamils; more than 15,000 civilians of the 7-sister of Assam; hundreds of thousand Dalits; hundreds thousand of Adivaasis or Moolnivasis. These Sikhs, Muslims and non-Hindus and non-Brahmins minorities were killed, because they were neither Brahmins nor the Hindus. Both the ‘Brahmins-Hindus politicians or law-makers and the personnel of armed forces need one another to protect their own skin, since 15th August, 1947.
The matter of concern for the international monitoring organizations of human rights is that Indian authorities instead of giving rights to the minorities have put their leadership behind the bar. In an “e-mail”, a Maoist’s leader with the promise of anonymity told me that he is in the jail since couple of years and are being thrashed and tortured in the jails. In September 2010, it was the first time when he had been able to access to the internet. He has not been allowed to receive or send text messages for three months. He further elaborated that just like all kashmiries his telephone has been barred from such contacts.
The parties like BJP, RSS and Shiv Sena under the leadership extremists’ Hindu leadership like Ball Thakara always motivated and backed extremists Hindu against Christians, Sikhs and Muslims. It is notable here that since couple of years Indian government with the help of Hindu terrorists is making deliberate attempts to further deplete the minorities Karnataka, Kashmir, Gujarat Ameristar, Manipur and Orissa states. Compass Direct News (CDN) mentioned in their report of October 13, 2010 that police in a south Indian state known is for turning to minority Christians. In recent years local police have arrested two suspected Hindu nationalists for beating four pastors and striking the wife of one of them in the stomach, killing her unborn child. These suspects were indirectly supporting by the local authorities and police. According to the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), the attack took place at a Christian gathering in a private Christian school when they were to celebrate the birth of Mahatma Gandhi on Oct. 2 in Chintamani, (Karnataka state’s Kolar district).
About 40 people barged into New Public School during the concluding prayer that morning and began selectively beating the pastors and Kejiya Fernandes, wife of one identified only as Pastor Fernandes. Chintamani police arrived but the attack went on, and when it ended at noon officers took the Christians to the station instead of arresting the attackers. It is also added here that the poor Christian were also denied medical attention. The injured Christians were released at 7:30 p.m. only after Kejiya Fernandes began to bleed profusely, GCIC reported. She and her husband later received hospital treatment, where she lost the baby she had been carrying for four months, according to GCIC.
The attack was reportedly carried out to avenge an alleged insult to Hindu gods during the Christian gathering, with the accused also having filed a police complaint, added Prakash, who visited the area and the Christian victims this week. However, the complaint against the Christians was for “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs” (Section 295-a), and, strangely, Section 324 for “voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means,” among other charges. The Christians were not arrested, as a court granted them anticipatory bail.
According to the report, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, whose birthday the Christians were celebrating, was a friend with Christian missionaries during British rule and taught religious tolerance. The acclaimed Hindu, India’s greatest political and spiritual leader was killed in 1948 by Nathuram Godse, who was allegedly influenced by the ideology of the Hindu extremist conglomerate Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. It is quite alarming that for the last three years, Karnataka has been seen as the hub of Christian persecution in India. More than 152 attacks on Christians in 2009, 86 were reported in Karnataka, according to the EFI. This year, too, Karnataka is likely to top anti-Christian attacks. According to the GCIC, at least 47 attacks on Christians in the state had been reported as of Sept. 26. Persecution of Christians in Karnataka increased particularly after the August 2008 anti-Christian mayhem in eastern Orissa state, where Maoists killed a Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader but Hindu extremists wrongly blamed it on local Christians.
The attacks in Orissa’s Kandhamal district killed more than 100 people and burned 4,640 houses, 252 churches and 13 educational institutions. While Hindu nationalists had targeted and were working in Karnataka for close to two decades, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to sole power in the state for the first time in the history of independent India in May 2008. Prior to that, the BJP ruled in coalition with a local party, the Janata Dal-Secular, for 20 months. It is believed that the victory of the BJP has led to the violence in Orissa, which was also ruled by a coalition that included the BJP – emboldened Hindu extremists, who now enjoy greater impunity due to the party’s incumbency. Despite the high incidence of persecution of minorities in Karnataka, BJP leaders deny it, alleging complaint are the result of a political conspiracy of opposition parties. There are a little more than 1 million Christians in Karnataka, where the total population is more than 52 million, mostly Hindus.Thus, in this connection we can say that the worries of minorities are increasing day by day and continuous gross violation of human rights in India is further aggravating the problem. Interestingly, during the period of the British Empire administration, 19th to 20th centuries, no Sikh and/or Muslims Lt.-Generals were court marshaled. This is the reflection that only the ‘Brahmins-Hindus’ in the Indian armed forces are corrupt and criminals. The sate of minorities in India is so pathetic that they even are not allowed in open to perform their religious obligations. The local news channels have been banned in the Kashmir and affected areas. The overall situation in Maoist, Nagaland, Orissa and Kashmir are dreadful.
Indian Chief of Army Staff Gen V K Singh has failed to stop his troops to stop brutality against minorities. He is just busy in threatening and interfering in neighbouring countries’ internal affairs. In this regard, on October 15, 2010 said that China and Pakistan are two major irritants for India’s security and about the possibility of a war in a nuclear scenario, saying they were “jingoistic” and “unwise”. While rejecting Indian Chief comments, Islamabad Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said in a statement: “The government of Pakistan takes a serious exception to the reported statement of the Indian Army chief about his threat perception from Pakistan, war under a nuclear scenario and uncalled for and gratuitous comments on the internal affairs of Pakistan.” In fact, Indian Chief has started sprinkling venom against China and Pakistan by design due to the forthcoming visit of Obama. He also tried to divert the attention of international community and particularly Americans from extremists’ Hindu brutality against Christians. Probably, he was in the knowledge that Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) and others minorities has planned to protest against Indian brutality on arrival of President Obama. GCIC is also approaching Obama administration to pressurize India to stop Hindu extremism against Christians. But question arises, whether the president of lonely supper power will ask India to end Hindutva Terror or give preference in making economical gains at the cost of killing of his own community in the hands of Hindu extremists’ terrorists.

RSS involved in almost all riots in the country: Congress

Uttar Pradesh Congress asked the Central and state governments to monitor the activities of RSS and ban the "fundamentalist" organisation if its activities could not be controlled.

"I demand from the Centre and state governments to keep an eye on activities of RSS, which is involved in almost all the riots that took place in the country. If activities of this fundamentalist organisation could not be controlled, it should be banned," UPCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi told reporters here.

Commenting on the name of a senior RSS leader figuring in the chargesheet in the 2007 Ajmer blast, Joshi alleged that either RSS, BJP or their offshoots were involved in most of the communal riots.

"The RSS is destroying unity of the country so its activities should remain under scanner," Joshi said while claiming that the organisation was involved in blasts at Mecca Masjid mosque, Jaipur, Samjhauta Express.

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