Bajrang Dal involved in Karnataka communal violence: Home Ministry

NEW DELHI: Days after directing Orissa to take immediate steps to contain violence against Christians in the state, the Centre on Thursday sent another strict missive to it asking it to ensure that “the prevailing situation of lawlessness” in some areas is effectively brought under control.

The strongly worded note was sent by Union home secretary Madhukar Gupta to the state chief secretary in the wake of reports of fresh violence in the riot-hit Kandhmal. The earlier message was sent to Orissa on September 19 when the Centre had directed other states, including Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, as well to take immediate measures to end the violence.

As usual, the home ministry remained silent on whether the fresh missive was sent under Article 355 or not – a constitutional provision which empowers the Centre to direct states on taking concrete action during internal disturbances.

The fresh missive to Orissa came on a day when a Central team, which visited Karnataka on a fact-finding mission in the wake of violence against the Christian community, indicted Bajrang Dal for vandalizing churches, prayer halls and schools and pointed out that lapses on the part of the police and the local administration could aggravate the situation further.

Although the team in its report to the home ministry mentioned that the state remained has peaceful in the past four days, it highlighted that there was a “sense of uneasiness” in Karnataka and the Christian community was “visibly upset and unhappy” over the recent communal violence there. Special secretary (internal security) M L Kumawat, who led the two-member team to Karnataka, said: “Alleged Bajrang Dal elements were involved in vandalising churches, prayer halls and schools.”

The team found that violent protests on September 15 following the desecration of churches in Mangalore made the cops, who were mostly fresh recruits, impatient. (Time Of India)

More Indian police sent to Orissa

 India has deployed several hundred more federal police to the eastern state of Orissa after another person was killed and several injured in continuing Christian-Hindu clashes.

A recent outbreak of violence over religious conversions has spread beyond Orissa and  claimed the lives of up to 27 people across three Indian states.

More than 700 federal police were being sent on Friday to bolster the 3,000 security forces already in Orissa.

Pradeep Kapur, the state’s inspector general of police in charge of law and order, said: “We have moved seven more companies of paramilitary forces to the troubled areas.”

In one of two incidents of violence in rural Kandhamal district on Thursday, police said about 50 Christians armed with knives, sticks and stones hacked a Hindu man to death in the town of Raikia.

Around 500 Hindus also attacked and burned about 50 Christian homes and two prayer halls in Beherasahi village, Kishore Pradhan, a police officer, said.

Christians account for about 2.5 per cent of India’s 1.1 billion population, while Hindus make up 80 per cent.

Clashes first erupted in Orissa after Swami Laxsmananda Saraswati, a prominent Hindu leader, was killed. Though Chritistians deny any role, Hindu religious parties say Christian fanatics were behind the murder.

Saraswati, who actively opposed conversions to Christianity, had survived at least eight previous assassination attempts.

‘Forced’ conversion

Orissa has a history of religious violence, usually sparked by Hindu suspicions over missionary work.

Hindu activists claim that Christian missionary groups are forcing or bribing people to convert. Church organisations deny anyone has been pressured or paid to change their religion.

Pope Benedict has condemned the attacks on Christians in India and Roman Catholic bishops have urged the EU to treat the situation as a humanitarian emergency.

Despite this, violence has continued, especially in Kandhamal, where thousands of Christians now live in government camps because their homes are destroyed or they are too fearful to return.

Hindus at some places have also been at the receiving end of the violence and been attacked.

Religious clashes have also been reported in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka states.

India does not have a long history of attacks on minority Christians, but intolerance has risen in the past two decades with a revival of Hindu nationalism.

Hindu nationalists lead or share power in the three states where Christians have come under attack.

(Al-Jazeera)

Bishop says the “worm has turned” after Indian Christians attack Hindu

Bishop Nazir-Ali appeals for Christian restraint in face of Hindu violence

Beleaguered Christians in India have “run out of cheeks to be struck” a senior Anglican bishop declared yesterday, on hearing reports that a Christian mob had hacked a Hindu to death in the troubled state of Orissa.

Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, called for peace, and said that the murder, conducted by a knive-wielding mob of 50 Christians, could not be condoned. But he told The Times: “For months now, scores of Christians have been killed, homes, convents and presbyteries have been burnt down to the ground.”

He said: “Now one Hindu has been killed, allegedly by Christians. We do not know under what circumstances but it suggests that the worm has turned and the Christian community has run out of cheeks to be struck.”

Appealing for an immediate end to the violence, Dr Nazir-Ali added: “As Christians, we must ask our brothers to remain as peaceful as they have during the recent provocation. We must ask, however, when justice will be done and when these people, under severe pressure, will be allowed relief.”

Thursday’s murder was one of two outbreaks of sectarian violence on the same day in the East Indian state of Orissa. According to police, 27 people died in Thursday’s violence. In a second attack, 500 Hindus burned and attacked Christian homes and two parish halls, causing local Christians to flee. No one died, but hundreds of Christians are said to be living in the jungle, having already abandoned their homes, as a result of the ongoing violence, which began on August 24th after the killing of a Hindu religious leader. On Thursday, the Indian Government appealed to the federal Government to halt the violence.

Yesterday Bishop Nazir-Ali accused the state government in Orissa of being “completely ineffective”, explaining “Christians from other parts of India, let alone elsewhere, have not been allowed by the State authorities to bring relief to the afflicted and the Federal Government has been paralysed.”

Bishop Nazir-Ali said that several weeks ago he had offered his assistance to the UK Government for a peace and factfinding mission to Orissa. “Neither the Foreign & Commonwealth Office nor the Commonwealth Secretariat have taken up this offer,” he revealed yesterday, adding: “Will the Indian Government now allow outside observers to see for themselves what has happened and what can be done about it?”

The bishop also denied claims by hardline Hindu groups in Orissa who say that Christian missionaries bribe or force Hindus to convert and are thus to blame for the recent violence. He said that Indian Christian missionaries working in the area had brought education, medicine and community assistance “to untouchables and tribals well beyond the pale of Caste Hinduism. Is it for this ‘crime’ that they are being punished?” he asked.

“The aim of their work has been service to their fellow human beings but love elicits love and if some people are becoming Christians, of their own free will, is this so unacceptable in secular and democratic India?

He called on the Indian Government to rein in extremist Hindu nationalists involved in the violence, saying: “The Government of India has a solemn responsibility to prevent violence, particularly against Muslims and Christians, by extremist Hindu nationalists. Now is the time to act and to clear this stain on the fair home of India.” (Timesonline)

Anti-Christian attacks systematic: Indian govt

NEW DELHI (AFP) — The Indian government said Thursday that attacks on Christians in the country’s east were “very systematic” and prodded the local administration to stamp out the ongoing religious violence.

It coincided with large-scale Christian rallies elsewhere in the country to protest attacks on churches, prayer halls and Catholic-run schools in the eastern state of Orissa.

The federal home ministry, which sent a fact-finding team to Orissa, said “lawlessness” prevailed in the coastal state, where 20 people have died so far in recent anti-Christian attacks.

“The attacks are made in a very systematic manner like blocking the roads by felling trees so that police cannot go to the spot,” said M.L. Kumawat, a top ministry bureaucrat.

“The state government needs to take very firm action against those who are instigating the violence,” Kumawat told reporters.

An Indian government spokesman said New Delhi ordered Orissa to stamp out violence.

“Strict instructions (must be) issued to the all concerned to ensure the prevailing situation of apparent lawlessness is brought under control,” the spokesman said.

The Orissa violence, triggered by the murder last month of a Hindu priest and four followers, forced thousands of people, mostly Christians, to flee their homes from revenge attacks. Many are still living in state-run camps.

Similar violence spread to the southern state of Karnataka, which is ruled by a Hindu nationalist party.

Hindu-Christian violence occurs periodically in India, where 2.3 percent of the country’s population of more than 1.1 billion are Christians.

Hardline Hindus accuse missionaries of bribing poor tribals and low-caste Hindus to convert to Christianity by offering free education and healthcare.  (AFP)

CSW urges EU to speak out on Orissa violence

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) yesterday sent letters to EU leaders urging the EU to use Monday’s EU-India Summit to make representations about the continued targeting of Christians by extremist Hindu nationalists in Orissa.

The letters to the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, Commisioner Ferrero-Waldner and General-Secretary Solana, coincide with reports of fresh arson attacks on churches and houses of Christians, and a mob assault on a police station following the arrest of two Hindus for rioting.

The correspondence also follows a resolution adopted by the European Parliament on Wednesday, which expressed “deep concern” at the violence and called on the state and national authorities “to do all in their power fully to protect the Christian minority”.

The letters describe the violence as “extremely serious”, and provide an assessment based on first-hand testimony from victims and eyewitnesses and the analysis of local NGO leaders, Christian leaders and Hindu civil society observers.

It notes the ongoing coercive conversions of Christians to Hinduism and calls on the EU to make nine recommendations to the Indian government. These include the deployment of a considerably larger security force, the provision of investigating officers and public prosecutors to expedite prosecutions and convictions as well as the provision of a more comprehensive package of relief to the displaced persons in Orissa.

CSW Advocacy Director, Tina Lambert said: “The 2005 EU-India Strategic Partnership Joint Action Plan included a commitment to upholding human rights and a continuation of dialogue. In light of the extremely serious ongoing situation in Orissa, we request that EU leaders use Monday’s Summit to raise this issue and urge the Indian government to take decisive action.

“To protect the Christian community the violence must be brought under control and the victims assisted in filing cases. The perpetrators and those inciting violence must be prosecuted and the root causes of the aggression, including the propagation of anti-Christian hatred, must be addressed.

“Until this happens, we believe that Kandhamal will continue to be locked in violence which seeks the elimination of the Christian community in that district.” (Christian Today)

20 more houses torched in Kandhamal

Bhubaneswar, September 26 After three warnings from the Union Home Ministry over its failure in containing violence in Kandhamal for over a month, the Orissa Government on Friday stepped up efforts to stop arsoning and killings even as violence continued in the district. For over a month, the district has been on the boil as it continues to be fuelled by a deadly cocktail of ethnic, religious and economic issues.While Chief Secretary Ajit Tripathy described the situation in Kandhamal as ‘very tense’, Naveen Patnaik said the violence was under control. In Kandhamal, however, arsoning continued as 20 houses in Gesinghia in G Udaygiri block were torched. In a related incident, hundreds of women blocked the Raikia-G Udaygiri road protesting the arrest of 16 people including two minor girls who have been taken to custody over the attack on Raikia police station on Wednesday.

Though police and district administration officials hoped they would be able to contain the violence, they seemed to be worried over Thursday’s attack at Sishpanga village in Raikia in which a Dalit Hindu was killed by Christian tribals. (Indian Express)

Violence, floods keep Orissa CM on the edge

DN Singh

Be it a man-made situation or just circumstantial, but Orissa’s Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, known to be an accomplished survivor through political odds, is now on the edge. He appears to be badly divided between two bads: on one side is the spectre of communal violence in Kandhamal and the very recent being the spurt of an unprecedented flood throwing millions off balance.

On top of that, what must be worrying Patnaik is the undertone of humiliation because of the Centre’s warning to invoke Article 355 and subsequently 356 unless the state government managed to restore harmony in riot-hit Kandhamal. The three consecutive notices from the Union Home Ministry (on September 6, 19 and on 26) are indeed hanging like the Damocle’s sword on Patnaik. It may be a far off possibility for the Centre to invoke Article 356 but the tenor of the notices have not only raised eyebrows nationally, but for the Chief Minister it could generate an atmosphere of negativity hardly six months before the upcoming Assembly polls. What further adds to the worry are the perfidious utterances of people who pose to be the harbingers of religious virtuosity and stoking the sentiments through websites.

At present Kandhamal is back in the news as the last three days were witness to three major incidents in which over 120 houses were burnt and a few prayer houses were torched. Four persons have been killed. What is bothersome is the state government’s decision, so far, to curb the unrest through the might of guns. More than 50 companies of Central and state security forces virtually lay seige to the district, yet the venom of hatred keeps boiling within.

Surprisingly, the CM till the other day appeared non-committal towards a process of dialogue, which was evident from his reply to a question from the scribes the other day that whether he had any plans to take recourse to dialogue for peace in Kandhamal. Patnaik parried the question saying that anyone is welcome to take any such initiative that can restore normalcy there.

However, like gold in the tooth of decay, the Chief Minister now seems ready for the truce and left for Kandhamal in a huff on Saturday last. There comes the poser that why this thought had not occurred to the state government earlier which heavily depends on bureaucratic wisdom. Was it the ‘notice’ from the Union Home Ministry which could create the significant erosion of the siege mentality of the ‘babus’ or electoral compulsion of Naveen Patnaik .

The damage is done and the clear polarization of the vote bank in Kandhamal and in a few adjoining districts, is inevitable. In the name of religion the ground reality cannot be masked. The inherent problems lie in the socio-economic roots. Tricks and tactics of surreptious nature had been played on this vulnerable section for decades and now when there is the backlash we want to styme their moral legitimacy to live through round the clock curfews and some remain confined to the relief camps gasping for breath. (ZEE News)