Hindutva card fails Himachal chief minsiter Virbhadra Singh

ALL INDIA CHRISTIAN COUNCILPresident: Dr. Joseph D’souza Secretary General: Dr. John Dayal
Hindu card fails Himachal Chief Minister as BJP Wins Parliament Sabha seat inHimalaya stateChurch must caution Goa government not to abuse land, environment
PRESS STATEMENTNew Delhi, June 7, 2007
[The following is the text of the Press statement issued by National Integration Council member Dr. John Dayal, President, All India catholic Union, and Secretary General Dr John Dayal All India Christian Council on the Assembly Elections in Goa and the Lok Sabha bye-elections in Himachal Pradesh. Himachal Pradesh had last year passed an odious Freedom of Religion Bill targeting Church activity in the small state where Christians are barely visible on the religious radar]
The efforts of Congress Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh of Himachal Pradesh to try to outdo the Bharatiya Janata Party on pandering to the Hindutva ideology has backfired, with his party losing the prestigious Hamirpur Lok Sabha bye-election to arch-rival Prem Kumar Dumal, former Chief minister and BJP leader.This should be a signal to the Congress in the Himalayan State which goes to the polls early next year to elect its legislature. Although he has bravely said the “Hamirpur result will have no impact on assembly polls”, Virbhadra Singh must wonder why bringing forth with much fanfare a new law banning religious conversions has not helped him. The BJP now controls the other mountain state of Uttaranchal in the neighborhood and is eyeing Himachal, which it has ruled several times since it was created.The BJP agenda for the entire foothills of the Himalayas, stretching from near Kashmir to Uttaranchal has been repeatedly affirmed. It calls this region a holy or divine abode of deities of the Hindu pantheon and wants to curb all religious activity other than of various Hindu cults.The Congress in both Uttaranchal and Himachal has sought to ape the BJP by also trying to appeal to religious sentiments of the people, spreading its largesse to chosen religious groups. The dire Religious Freedom Bill was the latest in this series.With Christians constituting less than one per cent of the population, the Freedom of Religion Act was widely seen as an empty gesture with no other purpose other than to try to match the Hindutva of the BJP.The law, which has now been given the Governors’ sanction, has been criticised by civil rights groups, and of course by Christian groups as unnecessarily stigmatizing them, and opening church workers to personal assault and official restraints. The All India Christian Council and others have already announced they are challenging the Act in the Himachal court after the Summer vacations of the court.It should be clear to the Congress that it cannot, and must not, compete with the BJP in this manner for narrow sectarian political goals. It tradition of secularism and its appeal cutting across communities will take a body blow unless it distances such maverick acts as those of Mr. Virbhadra Singh. In the same context, there is alarm that the Congress Working Committee at the behest of some short sighted members may chose to delay giving Constitutional citizen rights to Muslims and Dalits of Scheduled Caste origin, a step strongly recommended by the Justice Rangnath Misra Commission.The party will also help itself if it listens to the voice from the ground in Goa where it has managed to scrape through the corm a government. It came close to disaster because of policies which the people correctly perceive as being injurious to the environment and to the land. The Church has done well by its leadership in the interests of integrity and the environment, and its unceasing campaign for honesty in public life. We must salute the people of Goa who have been vigilant at multiple levels – the environment, economy, political and personal integrity, and ideology. Released for publication
Address for Correspondence:johndayal@vsnl.comMobile: 09811021072Website: http://www.aiccindia.org