The human cost of fake encounters

John Dayal

A bullet kills a man, shatters a family, and adds to the triumphal statistics of a government totaling up the number of “Maoists” it has eliminated in its “Red Corridor” extending from the borers of Nepal to deep into Andhra Pradesh in south India.

The tragedy is compounded as Central and State governments pretend deafness when civil society challenges the “fake encounter”, a euphemism for cold blooded extra judicial execution by the armed police, and the country’s much wonted judicial system cannot intervene to examine the circumstances in which a bunch of young men me their death in such a brutal manner.

This is one such story, narrated by the brother of one of those killed, and a harried activist who sees his own son abducted by the police soon after he cries for justice for the dead innocents. It is also the frustration of national civil society activists and specially those of Orissa who have failed to rouse the conscience of chief ministers, governors and heads of various commissions dealing with human rights issues.

As news reports curtly detailed one morning, five men, described as Maoists, were shot dead in an encounter with the security forces in Gajapati district of Odisha on November 14, 2012. They were identified as  Aiba Padra, 35 years of age, of Bujuli village in Gadhapur panchayat, Shyamson Majhi, 50, of Bhingiriguda in Saramuli panchayat, Ghasiram Bagsingh, 33, of Mardhipanka village, Saramuli panchayat and Sanathan Mallick, 27, of Gaheju village in Hatimunda panchayat. All four villages are in Daringbadi block of Kandhamal district in the jurisdiction of the Brahmanigaon police station.

Dandapani Mohanty,  one of interlocutors along with Prof. Hargopal and Prof. R.S. Rao during the Government and Maoists’ peace talk process when Vineel Krishna, the then Malkangiri Collector, was abducted by Maoists, said the killings took place even as negotiations with the director general of police over implementation of  the past agreement were still under way.

On 30^th November, 2012, various civil rights organizations organized a demonstration and dharna in front of Odisha Assembly with the widows of the dead men, demanding a judiciary enquiry into the incident. The chief minister refused to meet the delegation.

Instead, police abducted Mohanty’s son. in a letter to the chief minister, Mohanty said “in a surprising move, on 5^th December, 2012, at the time around 10 am, when my only son Sangram Mohanty, an engineer and government contractor,  was returning from the garage after dealing with repair works of our trucks, the police in civil dress forcefully kidnapped him from Berhampur. In afternoon I knew from various TV channels that my son was arrested by police from Kamalapur of Mohana block area allegedly with arms and ammunitions and later forwarded to R. Udaygiri jail at 2 o’clock night. Though our family members and advocate tried to meet him police did not allow them at both Mohana Police Station and R. Udaygiri jail.”

Human rights activist VS Krishna and writer and social activist Deba Ranjan Sarangi  who led a fact-finding mission said “On the basis of our enquiries we state emphatically that all five of the deceased are not armed Maoist cadre but civilians. They did not die in an encounter but were murdered by the police. The version of the police that a combing party of the Special Operations Group and District Voluntary Force were fired upon on the forenoon of November 14 by Maoists in the Baliguda forest area of Gobindapur panchayat (on the Gajapati-Ganjam border) in the jurisdiction of the Mohana police station following which they returned the fire in self-defense resulting in the death of 5 Maoists is nothing but a blatant falsehood.”

Their enquiries found all five killed were civilians and unarmed. They were farmers who were leading completely over-ground lives. While three of them, Aiba Padra, Shyamson Majhi and Sanatan Mallick were adivasis of the Kondh tribe, Ghasiram Bagsingh and Laxmi Kanta Nayak were Scheduled Castes belonging to the Pano community. Ghasiram Bagsingh, Shyamson Majhi and Aiba Padra were also social activists.

Aiba Padra of Bujuli had some land on which he raised ginger and turmeric. His wife Ranjita is an anganwadi worker in the village and they have a 6-year-old son who studies at the Good Shepherd School in Brahmanigaon. Aiba was employed with an NGO Orissa Health and Medical Research Institute for which he was filling in details of the government’s socio-economic and caste census. He was, according to residents of the village, quite concerned about the development of the area. According to Ranjita, Aiba was driving her and their son on his motorbike from Brahmanigaon on November 12 when he said that there was some work he had to attend on and would be back the next day. He dropped them off en-route Bujuli and that was the last she saw him alive.

Shyamson Majhi of Bhingiriguda was a much-respected man. He was president, since 2004, of a local committee formed by the people and was quite active in issues like exposing panchayat raj corruption and laying of roads to remote villages. He had unsuccessfully contested for the Saramuli sarpanch’s post in 2006. On November 13, Shyamson asked his brother Judhistir, a government teacher, for his motorcycle saying he had to go to Daringbadi to seek legal help for 11 of their associates who were being implicated in a false case by Karma Patmajhi and their associates. That was the last his wife Sikko Alu Majhi saw him. The couple has two sons, one of who is mentally challenged.

Sanatan Mallick of Gaheju was a farmer who raised ginger and paddy. He was also a pastor his village church. He and his wife Mamita, an anganwadi helper, also ran a small kirana shop in the village. They have two daughters. According to the village residents, he was a good man and of a helpful nature. He would often speak in terms of doing the right thing. The last time Mamita saw him alive was on November 13^th when he left home in the morning saying he would return the next day.”

Ghasiram Bagsingh of Mardhipanka was by all accounts an exceptionally dynamic activist. He was elected panchayat samiti member in the 2006 polls and was quite well known in the area. Apart from some farming, he also did small construction contracts. He was the leader of the anti-corruption crusade in the panchayat that resulted in the sarpanch getting arrested. He, along with people like Shyamson Majhi took out an impressive rally at Daringbadi on October 12 seeking action against not just the sarpanch but also all those who were involved in the rice misappropriation and other illegalities. Ghasiram was driving the bike with Shyamson pillion riding on November 13th when they left for Daringbadi. This is the last seen of both of them alive.

How the deaths of these men, caught in the political crossfire between the government and the Maoist, have impacted their families is best told in the words of Ghasiram’s only brother Pramod. Pramod is a Catholic scholar, currently   a member of the community of Silesians of Don Bosco, studying philosophy in Karunapuram Warangal, Andhra Pradesh.

In a letter to some friends, he said “Karma Majhi, the Sarpanch of our panchayat is the dealer who sells ration rice to the locality. He is supposed to give to the people whatever comes from the Government but in reality he is selling away secretly the store and telling the innocent people no stock. It has been taking place number of times. People in their innocence went to my brother Ghasiram Bagsingh, a well-known person in the locality who always fought for justice. He was also a member of Daringbadi Block  council. Together with the people my brother went to police station to fail a case against the Sarpanch for cheating the people. The police responded immediately and arrested him. Later they had a rally in the block in the presence of B.D.O and Tahsildar.

“The sarpanch got bail complained to the Naxalites about my brother and four other innocent men.  The Maoists gave a letter to my brother telling him to come for meeting in the forest near Baliguda. The nature of the Naxalites of this place is that nobody should know what is happening in the place other than the people concerned. If at all the news is leaked they would come and kill the person responsible.

“The sarpanch who informed the Maoists, also informed the police  who went to the place where meeting is conducted and shot all five.  The question is whether they were shot on their way to the meeting spot or on their return journey or just called and shot. These questions remain unanswered. The whole incident was arranged by the sarpanch.

“My brother Ghasiram Bagsingh was married to Laxmi and had four children, two boys and two girls studying in different hostels aging from 9 to 3 years. His wife is housewife. Now I am in a dilemma what to do about them. I am in the seminary. I am only male at home. I have five sisters of whom two are married and three are studying in hostels. My family needs financial support very badly. We have filled case in the high court for the compensation and to get justice done for the family. So far nothing has happened.”

The media has not bothered about this family, or about the other five.

The government remains silent.

Civil society has also quietened down, frustrated as its efforts go unheeded,  and afraid they too may be targeted like Mohanty.

[First published in Indian Currents 10 Feb 2013]

GANG RAPES IN KANDHAMAL

The shame of Kandhamal

The untold story of gender violence in Orissa

JOHN DAYAL

On a recent visit to Orissa, I interviewed a 13 year old girl who had been gang raped on Dussehara evening in a forest in Kandhamal, not far from her home in a  small township. She was returning with her companions from a  “mela” or fete organized to celebrate the victory of good, exemplified by the Lord Rama, over evil, represented in lore by the effigy of abductor King Ravana.  Torn and naked, barring coat someone had given to hide her body, she made it to the town, and eventually to her extended family. After a long struggle and encounter with a foul mouthed woman police inspector and a callous official of the Orissa government’s Women’s Commission, the family managed to get a First Information Report lodged with the Police. The case is still not in court.

Another girl, also about 13 or 14 years old, was not so lucky. Coming home from another fete, she was captured by a gang of young men, stripped and gang raped. They then tied her to a tree, and  in a frenzy, killed her.

And now, a fact finding team, organized by the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights and others, which went to Kandhamal early in January, has discovered the rape of a third girl. All of them were either Dalits or Tribal. And two of them were Christian.

Away from the mass movement in New Delhi and other big towns, both spontaneous and organized,  of the gang rape and murder of “Brave-heart Daughter of India” as media and politicians called her, there has been a   stunning silence on rapes of Dalit and Tribal women across the country, often enough by members of the police an security forces, and the absolute impunity that goes with it. Orissa has specially been an area of darkness. Some accounts have put the number of rapes in Kandhamal region as high as 30, with civil rights groups speaking of upto 100 cases in Sundargarh, for instance.

This is time to have a look at the full picture in Orissa which has a long history of rapes and its political consequences. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's 13-year long regime has witnessed a series of such gory incidents.  Civil rights groups quote official data which says that three women are raped every day in the state.

Local activists say this winter has seen many spine chilling rape incidents. A dancing girl was raped by three persons in the state capital while another girl was molested and pushed out of a running auto-rickshaw in the city. This was followed by a most pathetic incident where a minor girl was forcibly lifted and gang-raped in Rayagada. The orphan girl who was staying with her grand-mother attempted self-immolation.

Crimes against women under three heads - namely rape, molestation and “eve teasing” - during the years 2009, 2010 and 2011 have increased in the state. "There has been a 20% rise in rape cases in the state during 2012. The increase in molestation and eve teasing cases have also recorded roughly the same percentage," a senior official in the state Home department has admitted.  The tribal dominated Keonjhar district tops the list of crimes against women. While 75 rape cases were registered in this mineral rich district in 2011, the figure increased to 101 in 2012. Besides, 235 molestation and 20 eve-teaching cases were also reported in Keonjhar the same year. Mayurbhanj registered the highest number of 295 molestation cases in 2012, figuring slightly below the neighbouring district in rape cases (82).

Christians have been particular targets. In the 2007-2008 attacks, women and girls were targeted for sexual violence, humiliation, brutal physical assaults and threats. “There are several other reports of sexual assault and molestation and it is highly likely that many other such cases have gone unreported due to the shame attached,” warned the study ‘Genocide in Kandhamal: Ethnic Cleansing of Christians by Hindu Rightwing Forces in Orissa’ by the Human Rights Law Network. According to the report of Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work, five women reported that they and / or their female family members had been subjected to sexual assaults, and that 16 women said that young girls in their area had been raped while 12 women reported that women had been raped in their villages.  Though witness testimonies indicate that sexual violence was rampant during the attacks, there are very few reported cases, and an even smaller number that have been registered and are pending in the courts for prosecution. 

Patently, civil society – which includes the Church in the State and in India, must wake up to this grim reality before we seek to rouse the Judiciary and the political system.

We must not be partners in the conspiracy of silence.

A Salute to the Worthy

The priests of Kandhamal

Kandhamal is deadly beautiful. A tropical forest, but with close mountains and deep valleys, and a climate that can get alpine in winter, without the snow. The topography of this plateau in the middle of the Indian province of Orissa may have saved the lives of tens of thousands of Christians who fled to the forests as mobs with murder, arson and rape on their minds, attacked 300 villages on 25 August 2008. At the peak of the violence, 54,000 men, women and children were hiding in these forests of tall Sal trees, where bear and big cats still abound, and wild elephants can be heard in the dark of the night. Among those 54,000 were the families of perhaps three dozen Catholic priests and twice as many Nuns, and two dozen priests themselves, hiding and waiting for the moment the police would come to restore order. For some of them, it came too late. A hundred people may have died there, among them three protestant Pastors and a Catholic priest, Fr Bernard Digal, who was grievously wounded and succumbed some time later. A nun, Sister M, as I will call her, was among at least three women raped.

The brutal tragedy however also shed light on how close are the bond that the local priests have with their flocks. Unlike in many other parts of India where he parish priest may have come from as far as three thousand kilometres, be of a different ethnicity and with a different mother tongue, priests and nuns in Kandhamal are of the soil. The villages that were torched were where they were born, the churches destroyed were the priest too had been baptised, and where they celebrated their First Mass.

There is therefore something remarkable about the Priests and Nuns of Kandhamal, be they Dalits or the Tribals. Some of them, such as Fathers Vijay Naik and Vijay Pradhan, the first a Dalit and the second a Tribal, have doctorates from Roman universities. Many others chose to study social work, and were active at the grassroots. They helped galvanise a people who for centuries had suffered from a situation close to serfdom in which food was rare and education unknown, where women were vulnerable and children could bare hope to grow to adulthood. No wonder the work of the priest sand nuns had angered vested interests, the local equivalent of big business, and the power brokers. When the violence broke out, the families of the priests were particular targets. The brother of Fr Mrityunjay, the secretary of the Archbishop of the region, was forcibly converted into Hinduism by a murderous gang shaving off his head and forcing cow dung and urine down his throat. The youth suffered in silence, but was back in the church in the refugee tent as soon as it was humanly possible.

As elsewhere in the world, the clergy and women religious in India too face occasional charges of financial wrongdoings, but those in Kandhamal can easily be said to be crystal clean. The family of father Bernard Digal, who was Treasurer of the Archdiocese and became its first martyr in the violence, lived in a mud and thatchl hut when I visited them some years ago. After the violence, they were among thousands living in a government refigure camp. They still have to return to their village.

I salute the priests and Nuns of Kandhamal.

AS NATION PREPARES TO CELEBRATE REPUBLIC DAY, IN KANDHAMAL, SURVIVORS OF COMMUNAL VIOLENCE FACE A THIRD DISPLACEMENT

Around 100 survivors of communal violence, who have been staying in an abandoned NAC market complex at G. Udaygiri of Kandhamal district after the forcible closure of relief camps by the government, have been asked by the local administration to vacate the place. With the news of visit of a European Commission team to the region, the government have ordered to remove the people again as a part of its attempt to project that government had brought back normalcy in Kandhamal and violence affected people are living at their villages peacefully without any threat.

`The BDO has asked us to vacate immediately and if we refuse police force will be used,' said the worried survivors of Kandhamal violence. When the violence broke out on August 23, 2008, they were forced to leave their villages and their houses were burnt down. They had to take shelter in relief camps, but they were forced to leave from there also after the new BJD government come to power. Hence they had taken shelter in the market complex like beggars.

`Where can we go with these two babies?' asked a crying mother Ms. Menaka Nayak (25). Her youngest baby was born in the camp itself. `We can not go back to our village, because they will not allow us to live there if we do not convert to Hinduism. The government is not prepared to provide security and necessary help. On top of it they are trying to throw us out from here also’.

Mr. Moses Nayak, who has been prevented by the Hindu fundamentalists to come back to his village Ratingia as he had refused to change his religion unlike his two brothers, presently solely depends on daily wage based labour works, has no other options than to stay here. An elderly couple from R.Padikia village are also debarred to come back to their ancestral land as they failed to present their two ‘pastor’ sons before the communally motivated village mobs.

Following the dreadful communal violence around twenty thousand people have already migrated to different places outside Kandhamal. There are another five thousand people, who neither can afford to go outside nor can go back to their villages, living like refugees in various places of their home district. Although the district

administration is claiming of ensuring security, peace and rehabilitation to the survivors, the reality speaks of a different story. The seventeen families from the villages such as R.Padikia, Kutuluma, Loharingia,Kilakia, Jimmangia, Dakedi, Kiramah, Ratingia staying in NAC market complex are virtually landless and legally not entitled to claim their house damage compensation as they do not have records of rights over the lands they used to have their houses since generations. Whoever have RoR over their small patches of homestead land, are debarred by fundamentalists to reconstruct their houses. Very few people were given compensation and again that amount was not more than Rs.10, 000.

`Even after seventeen months, there is no indication of justice for the survivors of communal violence in Khandamal', says Fr. Ajay, Director, Jana Vikas, an leading NGO in Kandhamal who represents National Centre for Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) `There were 295 churches and 6,000 houses burnt down apart from schools, hospitals and other institutions. The victims are none other than poor adivasis and dalits. Urgent action is needed from the government to take care of the needs of the refugees of communalism who have been reduced to the level of beggars and second class citizens. This is not a matter of charity, but a fundamental right enshrined in the constitution of India’. The office building with other accessories belonging to Jana Vikas was one of the first to be burnt down on 25th August 2008.

`It appears that the existence of refugees of communalism is threatening the image of the Orissa government' says Dhirendra Panda, well known secular activist from Orissa. `That is the reason why they are trying to remove them instead of facilitating their security and rightful restoration’.

Mr.Sarat Nayak from Dakedi, a landless labour who can not go back to his village, complains of the indifference of the school authorities to get his child admitted in any other school. It has been found a numbers of children within age group of 5-14, who are staying in this non-official camp, had to discontinue their studies and there is no visible action by the local administration to bring back these children to schools again.

Let alone other problems, now the first and foremost need is prevent further evacuation of these hapless and hopeless adivasi and dalit victims. Whatever may be the intention, excuses or explanations put forth by the government, the reality is that one hundred victims of communal violence will be thrown out on streets within a day or two. Perhaps, the secular and human rights activists may respond.

[Original report by: K.P.Sasi, Film Maker]

Kandhamal victims unite, knock at Government’s doors for justice; action for grassroots reconciliation, security and confidence

A meeting of Priests, Pastors, community leaders and activists held at Berhampur on 7th December 2009 has endorsed the formation of the Sampradayik Hinsa Prapidita Sangathana [Association of Victims of commuinal violence in Kandhamal] formed earlier in Phulbani after a series of meetings in which human rights and civil society activists from Bhubaneswar and Cuttack also took part.

All these meetings were the first of their kind since Hindutva violence against the Christian community in Kandhamal and other districts of Orissa left over 5347 houses looted and burnt, 295 churches destroyed, women and girls raped, and more than 75 people murdered in the name of religion and ethnicity. Large-scale displacement and migrations followed with over 50,000 people becoming refugees in their own motherland.

Two fast track courts set up in the aftermath of the violence have lost the confidence of the people with murderers, one of them a BJP legislator Manoj Pradhan, being released in several cases with eye witnesses too scared to dispose against the culprits. About 2500 complaints had been registered but only 823 FIR have been registered. All the cases were classified into murder (27 cases), attempt to murder cases, rape case, etc.

The major task of the new association, working closely with clergy and civil society activists irrespective of religion, is to restore public confidence and to ensure that the victims and witnesses felt safe enough to depose in court. This grassroots action will also help in the process of reconciliation and hopefully allow people to come back to their villages which are now barred to them by Hindutva activists who are forcing them to first convert to Hinduism before assimilating in the old habitations.

However, the association has expressed its deep distrust in the current justice delivery system, saying the Fast Track Courts are working perhaps too fast in trying to finish off the cases without looking closely at the evidence. Of cases involving 12 murders, there has been conviction just in one case, for instance.

The association has also decided to boycott the Justice Mohapatra commission probing the murder of VHP vice president Lakhmanananda Saraswati and the violence that followed his death at the hands of a Maoist group on 23rd August 2008. They said the commission has preconceived notions and has already formed its conclusions without even waiting for evidence.
The meeting at Berhampur, presided over by Archbishop Cheenath, was also attended by other Bishops and church leaders including Bishop Sarath Nayak of Berhampur and Believers Church bishop Bardhan, National Integration Council Member John Dayal, Human rights activist Dhirendra Panda and senior lawyers from the Christian Law Association, Human Rights Law Network, and the All India Christian Council and all church groups represented in the region.

Meanwhile the Archbishop of Bhubaneswar-Cuttack and Kandhamal, Most Reverend Raphael Cheenath, SVD, has also met the Collector and submitted him a memorandum highlighting the same issues of instilling a sense of security among the villagers and giving them adequate compensation, rehabilitation and employment.

It was made clear at the various meetings that security of the people remained the main concern. The sense of insecurity is also leading to a gross miscarriage of justice in the two Fast Track courts. As victims have complained to the Orissa High Court separately, witnesses are being coerced, threatened, cajoled and sought to be bribed by murderers and arsonists facing trial. Shoddy police investigations have already created a crisis in the dispensation of justice, and even genuine eye witnesses are reneging in court as they see the court premises full of top activists of fundamentalist organisations and often the same persons who had burnt their houses. The police remain mute watchers, as always.

The witnesses are threatened in their homes, and even their distant relatives are being coerced. This requires urgent and immediate action by the District administration and the Police to ensure that the process of justice is not thwarted and sabotaged.

There are major lacunae in the relief and rehabilitation of the victims of mass arson. Not a single Christian place of worship or Christian NGO has been compensated for their tremendous loss, but the poor victims are also being mocked by the inadequate compensation. The violation of principles of rehabilitation is at several levels. The first is in identifying the houses as fully or partially damaged. Secondly, houses by the dozens have not been enumerated by the government surveyors. Thirdly, the victims of the 2007 arson, especially in Barakhama have been criminally left out of the reckoning and for those 225 or so poor families, it has been second year without adequate shelter.

It costs about Rs. 85,000 to reconstruct a house and yet the government gives only Rs 50,000 in separate tranches. It is the duty of the state to give the full money. Just to save the people from the vagaries of the weather, the Church has sought to pitch in, but their resources are meagre and more than 2,500 families cannot be helped by the Church.

There is no information from government or the district administration about the livelihood of those affected by the violence. The administration without delay must conceive and execute a scheme so that every family effected by violence has at least one person, if not more, in gainful employment in government projects so that they can live a life of dignity, and to prevent large scale migration and pauperisation of victim families.

It was felt special projects for the women victims, and especially young girls, are also required urgently in Kandhamal. There are already rumours of human trafficking. I pray they remain rumours.

The administration has to act swiftly on the issue of allotting land for homes to those persons who have fallen into the gap of the Forest Act, and have no land to build their houses. They have to be identified, allotted land so that they can live in peace without facing the perpetual threat of being ousted.

The administration, civil and police, have also to act with their full strength to stop the hate campaign that has been unleashed in the last one year, and which has penetrated distant villages, creating schism and hatred between communities. The law of the land must be implemented severely to contain and deter those indulging in this activity.

BETWEEN HOPE AND HOPLESSNESS

THE INDIA UPDATE

ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE SINCE AUGUST 24, 2008

Updated 20^th January 2009

 1. ORISSA         Ten years after the Christmas violence in the Dangs district of Gujarat  in 1998, and the burning alive of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines, on 22 January 1999, in Orissa, anti Christian violence has not just grown in the two regions, but has spread to other states such as Karnataka. Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.  Karnataka, in fact, has now surpassed Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, which were earlier the main areas witnessing persecution. In Orissa, where violence broke out between 24 to 27 December 2007 and then again between 24 August 2008 till the end of the year, a chilling tension still pervades the worst affected district of Kandhamal. And in government camps in G Udaygiri and Raikia in Kandhamal, more than Eight Thousand refugees live a life of torment, humiliation and unemployment. The un-totaled thousands in small and big Church-run camps outside Kandhamal and even deep in Andhra Pradesh that have little coordination with each other, people face an uncertain future. And perhaps 30,000 people still escape to the forests every night to sleep the night in the safety of raw nature, for fear of the marauding gangs. During sunlight hours, they attempt to harvest the paddy crop in the safer areas. Christian and Civil Society groups tried unsuccessfully to move the Courts to stop a government move to forcibly send back people from refugee camps back to distant villages without providing adequate security and employment. The Central Reserve Police Force has begun to thin out from its peak strength of 6,000 on the eve of Christmas, despite earnest requests to government to maintain sufficient numbers to bring confidence to the battered people. Criminal Investigation Department police are making some headway in the investigations in the rape of the Catholic nun, and that of another woman, a Hindu brutalized because her uncle had converted to Christianity. But police also admit that they will have to "trim" the list of about 70,000 persons named as aggressors in over in 746 cases to manageable numbers. The new Director General of Police feels that in each case only a clutch of principal accused can be investigated. So far 598 accused have been actually arrested. Christians have told investigators that many of the aggressors are still roaming free, and some murder suspects have even come to the government refugee camps. The death toll remains a matter of dispute. Human rights groups have a total of 120 names of persons of whom 103 are confirmed dead, and 17 are those whose names are not known, but are known only by their relationship with some villagers. Though there have been several other incidents in Orissa in December and mid January 2009, they have not been directly linked with the earlier sequence of violence. Reconstruction of the houses is yet to begin, and churches await the government assistance promised them by the Government after the intervention of the Supreme Court of India.

 A brief recall of major persecution:

ORISSA:         

14 (of 30)         Districts hit

315                  Villages destroyed

4,640               Houses burnt [State government estimates 4,215]

54,000             Homeless initially

120                  People murdered

7                      Priests/ Pastors killed

10                    Fathers/Pastors/Nuns injured

 2                     Rapes confirmed [One of Nun]

252                   Churches destroyed [estimated by State government]

13                      Schools, colleges destroyed

2. KARNATAKA      

 8 (of 29)           Districts affected

33                    Churches attacked update again

 53                    Christians injured in attacks, including Nuns assaulted by state police.

3. TAMIL NADU                     

 12                     Churches attacked

 4. MADHYA PRADESH    

5                       Churches damaged

5. KERALA  

4                      Churches damaged

 6. DELHI                        

 2         Churches damaged/destroyed 

[This update does not include incidents of violence and persecution witnessed in many other states, but not linked with the August 2008 outbreak.]

AND LEST WE FORGET

The decadal growth of the Sangh Parivar in Orissa from the martyrdom of Graham Stuart Staines and his sons on January 22, 1999, and of Father Bernard digal in the violence of August 2008

RSS the mother organization now has 6,000 shakhas with a 1,50,000 plus cadre.

 

The VHP has 1,25,000 primary workers in Orissa.

 

The Bajrang Dal has 50,000 activists working in 200 shakhas.

 

The ruling  Bharatiya Janata Party has above 4,50,000 workers.

 

 The Durga Vahini, the women’s group has 7,000 outfits in 117 sites.

 

The Rashtriya Sevika Samiti, another gender group, has 80 centres

 

Bharatiya Majdoor [labour] Sangh manages 171 trade unions with a cadre of 1,82,000 members.

 

 The strong Bharatiya Kisan [farmers] Sangh has 30,000 in 100 blocks.

 

Other  Sangh front organisations include Friends of Tribal Society, Samarpan Charitable Trust,

Sookruti, Yasodha Sadan, Eklavya Vidyalayas [schools], Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams and Parishads , Vivekananda Kendras, Shikha Vikas Samitis and Sewa Bharatis.

Kandhamal district, one of Orissa’s thirty, has 2,415 villages, the two towns of Phulbani and Balliguda.

 

Orissa’s 36.8 million population has a mere 2.4 per cent Christians, 2.1 per cent Muslims.

 

[Data courtesy Census of India, Survey of India, Prof Angana Chatterji [US] and others]

John Dayal, 19^th January 2009

Sangh Parivar is communalising civil rights

RSS, VHP get foreign funds without any check, says John Dayal John Dayal, secretary general, All India Christian Council and Member, National Integration Council, has been a critic of Sangh Parivar. He has been fighting for the cause of the Dalit Christians for the past several years. Currently, Dayal is working 24/7 to bring out a While Paper on Orissa - 2008.

In a detailed interaction with Sai Prasan, a senior journalist, John Dayal spoke on issues ranging from the Dalit Christian rights to the foreign funding of the RSS and VHP to pursue communal politics in Orissa. 

Excerpts:

What will be the strategy of the Church in countering the violence unleashed by the Hindu fundamentalists on the Dalit Christians in Kandhamal? How Church will protect their life?

John Dayal: As a peaceful people, we can do nothing but pray. But as citizens of India, there is much we can do, and have done. We have moved constitutional authorities in the political, administrative and judicial spheres, ranging from President of India, prime minister and chief minister to the High Court and the Supreme Court. We are hoping the government will provide enough CRPF forces to ensure peace in Kandhamal, and if necessary, will call in the Indian Army.

There is a strong opinion that Christian organizations also do not want quick solution of the problem as they get foreign funds in the name of persecution?

John Dayal: We want the violence against us to end as soon as possible so that the refugees can go home. We have a vested interest in peace. It is the Hindutva forces that thrive on tension and fear. The church does not get a penny from any source without the knowledge and permission of the government. The Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) ensures that. In fact, the RSS and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) get foreign funds from NRIs without any check.

Why the Church failed in fulfilling the aspirations of the Dalit Christian youth as youngster are either joining Left extremism or they are Naxal sympathizers in Orissa including in Kandhamal region?

John Dayal: The government has failed and betrayed us. It gave Dalit rights to Buddhists and Sikhs but has denied us those rights. It is a communal gesture and seeks to keep Dalits as bonded labour of Hindu upper caste society. The church is doing what it can from its limited resources, but it is committed to helping all people without reserving its activities only for Christians. It helps Hindu Dalits as much as Hindu Tribals and non-Hindu Tribals.

Naxalites and Maoists, which are different ideologies, do not have a religion. Most ultras are from Hindu families. There may be some from Muslim, Sikh or Christian families in the country, including Kandhamal.

Why are the Dalit Christians in Orissa divided on the denominational lines? Why are the different Churches staking their claim on Dalits?

John Dayal: This is not a fact. Orissa has several regions and the situation differs from one place to another. In the plains, especially in the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar-Berhampur coastal region, there are a few upper caste Christians, even perhaps in Sambhalapur. The rest are Oriya Dalits. And in both segments, both the Catholic and Protestant churches are prevalent. In the protestant churches, the Baptists are the dominant groups in Cuttack, for instance. In Tribal areas, the situation is slightly different. In the Northern region adjoining Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand, the Oraons and other Tribals are mostly Catholic for historic reasons but there are Church of North India, which is about thirty years old and was founded by uniting existing denominations such as Church of England and Presbyterian, and Pentecost groups also.

The situation in Kandhamal is complex. Kandhamal has four groups of people. The outsiders are Oriya migrants from the plains who are mostly Hindus. The local people are Kondhs, Kuis, who speak the same language as the Kondhs but are ethnically different, and the Panos who speak a variant of Oriya but are culturally and ethnically different. All three groups have both Catholics and Protestants. The Protestants, as usual consist of Baptists, the oldest, church of north India and new Pentecost groups. Some Kondhs are also nature worshippers and are not Hindus.

The historic reason is that both Catholics and Baptists first came about 140 years ago from two streams - from Calcutta and from the Madras Presidency region. The churches they established continue to this day. The Catholics are the most visible because of the structured churches and the Nuns.

What are the reasons behind your not attending in person the proceeding of the State instituted Commission (investigations) in Orissa?

John Dayal: There two reasons. First, the government could not provide security to witnesses coming from Kandhamal. Second was that Mr Panigrahi seemed to have made up his mind? I have, together with the church, decided to boycott both commissions.

What is the permanent solution of Kandhamal violence ?

John Dayal: Permanent peace can come with justice and implantation of constitutional guarantees. The police cannot be partisan. The poison which was spread by Mr Lakhmanananda will have to be removed. Forcible conversions will have to be stopped, and the guilty should punished ; the rule of law has to be maintained. Churches and houses must be rebuilt, livelihood given, education restored and normal life encouraged. Kondhs, Kuis and Panos, whatever be their religion, will have to live together in peace and they will do so once they understand that the government will be fair and will not tolerate violence.

How do you portray Indian Dalit Christians in front of the western world including Vatican City specially through Christian media - www.persecution.in and www.dalitnetwork.org and similar other websites and publications?

John Dayal: Indian Dalits are a marginalised group, who have been denied their constitutional rights. No more. No less. They are fighting for their rights, and will get them some day.

What is the view of the western world including Vatican City on Indian Dalit Christians? Or What is the take of Vatican on the Dalit Christians?

John Dayal: The same.

At what level, the discrimination exists between the Christians and Dalit Christians? How the co-existence is maintained within the Church periphery in the social context?

John Dayal: Historically till about fifty years ago, some churches in south India had separate segments for Dalits and upper caste. It is not so any more. But traces exist. Caste is an Indian phenomenon, and all religions including Muslims and Sikhs and Christians have practiced it at some level. That is the truth. Even Mahatma Gandhi wanted an end to untouchability only, but not to caste. The church has outlawed caste within it and is working hard to make it a reality. There has been much success, but traces still remain.

Are the Dalit Christians going to remain Dalit Christians for ever as it is being observed in Southern states including literate Kerala where Christianity is 1,900 years old? Has church kept any time frame for their total integration?

John Dayal: Of course not. There will be no more Dalit Christian when there are no more Dalit Hindus. In the church, there will be no separate feeling within the next generation.

How do the reformed Dalits view themselves in the Christian fold? Is there any behavioural awkwardness among Dalit Christians?

John Dayal: No different from the rest.

Are Dalit Christians willing to forego the state offered benefits like land and jobs once they are converted to Christianity? Has the Church taught Dalits the Central tenets of Christianity after adopting them into its fold?

John Dayal: Dalit Christians get no benefits from the government. Dalit Christians are the same as any other Christian in their faith understanding.

Why does the Church think that it has started the social reform process when the Church leadership itself concedes that it does not interfere in the social issues like discrimination on the caste lines in marriages ?

John Dayal: Church does not interfere in anything of a personal nature, but the social teachings of the church make it clear that it does not acknowledge or encourage castism .

Do you endorse the Dalit concept in Christianity as Bible does not permit any discrimination on any ground. Why do you demand reservation for the Dalit Christians which is against Bible?

John Dayal: I do not endorse any discrimination on any basis - caste, race, gender. The Bible does not come into the picture in getting legal rights.

You are vocal on Dalit Christian’s reservation in public sector. But, why are you silent on similar reservation in the private sector where the presence of Dalits is negligible?

John Dayal: I support affirmative action in all spheres of society, including what is called the private sector but is built on bank funds and tax rebates from government agencies.

Are there any other issue which you want to convey?

John Dayal: These are issues of justice and of the rights of citizens. Let us not let religion come into it. That is communalising civil rights. That is what the Sangh Parivar is doing.

Source: http://blog.orissaconcerns.net/2008/12/sangh-parivar-is-communalising-civil-rights-interview-with-john-dayal/

Orissa Update:

Kandhamal Dalits’ turmeric crop may be stolen
20 October 2008

After losing their homes – more than 4,300 log huts, mud and brick houses have been burnt down – the 50,000 Christians o0f Kandhamal in Orissa hiding in forests for two months or living as refugees in government and NGO camps across the state, also risk losing their precious crops of the world famous aromatic turmeric and ginger to marauding neighbours egged on by Hindutva hordes.

Losing the crops will not just be losing the last hope they had of an income, it also marks the end of so much labour of love, and so much hope.

A very large number of the Dalits and Tribals -- Christian, Hindu or traditional religionists -- of the Kandhamal plateau in the heart of Orissa state are marginal farmers and rural workers for whom the turmeric and ginger added to the pittance they earned from selling forest produce such as seeds of the sal trees, resin, and mango and jackfruit.

Even this was a big racket with middlemen, most of them Oriyas of the upper castes and trading classes from the big cities, buying the produce for a song, and selling it at a five hundred to a thousand per cent profit. The ginger and turmeric grown organically on the hill slopes and valleys, fed by rainwater and tilled in backbreaking labour, are so aromatic they are used in medicines and in the cosmetic industry.

Church and other NGOs had in fact been working with the small farmers, or rather with their wives, to see how they could cut out the middlemen. This was one reason all the moneyed men were financing the late Lakhmanananda Saraswati in his war against the Church.
The Panos Dalits face a twin crisis. Many of their fields have been taken over by Tribals under the newly implemented Forest Act. This had started happening after the December 2007 violence. Now with the men and women missing, the crops are at the mercy of the neighbours and others who have been mobilised by the traders and the Sangh activists.

Experts say a majority of the big traders are outsiders from Gajapati or Ganjam districts and even from as far as Cuttack, who form the middle and upper castes and are traditional supporters of the Hindutva groups. A few Panos who had become traders have always been under pressure.

Kandhamal ginger is understood to be available in the United States, Germany and Netherlands, and Japan. About 12,000 hectare is recorded as under turmeric cultivation with an annual production of just over 10,000 tonne.

And now the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal have started targeting Union police forces, many of whom are said to be trainees. Reports say sections of the Central Reserve Police Force are frequently ambushed, and forced to run away.

The VHP has also launched a media campaign against the CRPF, accusing its policemen of harassing Hindu women.

Christians speak out at National Integration Council

National Integration Council
Government of India
13 October 2008

Joint Statement by Christian Members:

Archbishop Vincent Concessao, Archbishop of Delhi
Dr John Dayal, Secretary General, All India Christian Council
Dr. Valson Thampu, Principal, St Stephen’s College, Delhi

Mr Prime Minister and Honourable Members of the National Integration Council,
We stand before you as Indian citizens professing the Christian faith. We bring you greetings from a community traumatised and struggling for its existence in the state of Orissa, and buffeted by senseless and motivated violence in eight other states of this wonderful country which is not only our beloved motherland, but is one of the first homelands of the Christian Faith in the world.
We feel it is a tragedy that the National Integration Council has met so rarely since the Honourable Prime Minister reconstituted it some years ago. As the highest national body of its kind outside the formal structure of Parliament, it could perhaps have been the forum to discuss solutions to the many incendiary issues that have ravaged our nation in recent times. There could have been solutions found, we dare say, in discussions unshackled by political whips and other agendas. Patently, Government must ensure that the NIC becomes a useful instrument in the continuing process of preserving and strengthening national integration.
For us, the threat has never been solely against the Christian community, its major victims though we are in recent months.
We know to our pain that for all practical purposes, Kandhamal district in Orissa seems not to be a part of India, as police and paramilitary could not enter it for weeks. The Indian Constitution remained operative. The National Commission for Minorities in earlier two visits in 2007 and a recent visit in August – September 2008 gave clear findings about ineffectiveness of local police and administration, and even suggested connivance, in the carnage.
The threat, therefore, is posed to the very Idea of India, as Jawaharlal Nehru would have said, to the Writ of the Constitution, to the rule of law. The Prime Minister has correctly called the horrific events in Orissa a National Shame. They are a slur on our ancient civilisation, our collective heritage. They are also cognizable crimes.
Honourable Members,
Even as we meet here today, the embers still smoke in the ruins of more than 4,300 houses and 157 Churches burnt in the Kandhamal and 13 other districts of Orissa. In a meticulously planned and executed conspiracy, a frenzied and well armed band of political criminals has threatened our community as perhaps it has never been in its 2,000 year old history in India, one of the earliest homelands of the faith.
We face a trial by gun, sword, fire and rapine, tantamount to ethnic cleansing. Over 50,000 who were forcibly purged from 300 villages now hide in forests as Internally Displaced persons, or cower in Government refugee camps in sub human conditions. They have been given a simple option – Convert to Hinduism or die.
The elements threatening them now, and who murdered 59 of them in 45 days, have been identified as – and have often come before Television camera to in macabre boast -- members of the Bajrang Dal and its sister organisations. They say it is their revenge for the killing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad vice president Lakhmanananda Saraswati on 23 August 2008. The Church condemned the murder unequivocally and called for a high powered enquiry. The guilty must be traced, arrested, tried and punished -- whatever is their religion, or ideology. The Maoists have given TV interviews accepting responsibility for the assassination. The State police have said it is the work of the Maoists.
And yet a Nun has been gang-raped, many men and women burnt alive or hacked to death. A strange retribution against an innocent people. We fear it is a conspiracy to polarise communities along religious divides in areas which had been peaceful through the decades.
The Sangh Parivar claims the violence is against forcible and fraudulent conversions to Christianity. We denounce forcible and fraudulent conversions. They would, by definition, be illegal, immoral, unethical, and against the Teachings of Faith. Five decades of Church documents, Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical, 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 black laws, and brutalised in police harassment.
Honourable Prime Minister and Members,
This violence must cease forthwith. Our people must be allowed to return home in peace in Kandhamal and in other districts of Orissa. We must be allowed to profess our faith in honour without fear, and without the sword of forcible conversions and the so called Ghar-wapsi, at our throat. This is what the Constitution assures us. We seek no more.
It is for the Law to take action against the guilty. We, as always, forgive our tormentors. This is our creed, a part of our daily prayers.
Experts, however, have suggested remedies that are available to the Union Government and the State.
The Fifth Schedule in the Constitution "Provisions as to the administration and control of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes” gives extensive rights to the Governor of the state. It also enjoins upon the governor the right to maintain law and order in scheduled areas.
The final word on subject of tackling communal riots should be left to the Honourable Supreme Court. [para 9- Legalpundits' Citation : LIS/SC/2008/826 - Harendra Sarkar Vs. State of Assam, [Alongwith Criminal Appeal No. 1068 of 2006] - May 2 2008—“ 9. The matter does not end with the reports of the judicial commissions alone but has been a matter of deep concern for the administration as well. The First National Police Commission headed by Shri Dharam Vira ICS (Retd.) in Volume VI, Chapter XLVII, Page 9 dealing with ''communal riots' of the report reads thus: - The investigation of crimes recorded is a matter which calls for professional skill and expertise of a different variety. Investigations of crimes cannot be undertaken in moments of tension and confusion. The National Integration Council has observed that special investigation squads should be set up to investigate crimes committed in the course of serious riots. We endorse this observation and recommend that such squads should be set up under the State Investigating agency [State CID (Crime)] to investigate all crimes committed in the course of a riot.
The Supreme Court had commended the role of the National Integration Council set up by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. We must, today, redeem that pledge.
Other urgent steps that have long been kept in cold storage are;
1. Stern action against hate Crimes. Hate campaigns are the incubators of communal violence.
2. Enacting of the Communal Violence Bill ensuring that it takes care of the concerns of the Christian community and does not further arm communal administrations or further emboldens impunity of communalised police elements.
3. Comprehensive relief and rehabilitation policies that wipe the tear from the eyes of victims of communal violence and give them the opportunity of creating a new life.
4. Adequate representation to all minorities and underprivileged groups in the Police, Administrative and judicial systems.
5. A thorough revamp of the education system, including a close watch on the recent rash of communally motivated village and rural schools set up by political groups, so that once again secularism, religious and cultural diversity and pluralism become the cornerstone of our nation-building.
6. Above all, the State – Parliament, Supreme Court, and Executive – must ensure that no one remains under the illusion, unfortunately very well founded at present, that communal politics, hate and the demonization of religious minorities can bring them electoral dividends in an India of the Twenty-first Century.

Sir,
The current violence against us is the uppermost in our mind. But we three would be failing our community if we do not refer to some other major issues that are whittling away at our Constitutional rights, and have stressed our people.
1. The issue of Dalit Christians: The Government has shown scant respect for the reports of various National Commissions commending that Christians of Dalit origin be granted the same Constitutional rights as Dalits professing other faiths. This delay, in fact, fuels the communal violence against the Christian community in various states.
2. Economic Development of the Christian community: There are a few islands of prosperity, but the vast majority of Indian Christians are Dalit, landless farmers, even manual labour. Many live below the poverty line. Many, specially women in tribal areas, remain uneducated. The Government appointed the Justice Rajender Sachhar Commission for Muslims and has acted with alacrity on its recommendations. We welcome that. We demand a similar commission and similar steps for the poor and the underdeveloped in the Christian Community.
3. Our Constitutional right to profess and propagate our faith has been severely restricted. By restraining the freedom of Propagation, we fear the attempt is to make Christianity a religion that can devolve only by birth. This violates national and international guarantees by taking away free choice of the citizen. Added to this is police interference with home worship and smaller church groups.
4. State and local laws have severely restrained out educational activities, specially for the poor. Government land is increasingly becoming unavailable to the social sector, and seems reserved for private business. English medium schools for Dalit children are now impossible in several states. Despite court decisions, there is increasing interference and erosion of Article 30 assurances.
These must end.


PART II

Our response to other Items on the NIC Agenda:

1. SOCIAL STRUCTURE – Caste and Identity divisions and rhetoric:

We hold caste to be an affront and an insult to human dignity. Untouchability has been outlawed, but is practiced openly in most states, specially in villages. Caste remains an ugly reality. It permeates administrative and police structures and is reflected in police atrocities. There seems to be swift retribution against social sector efforts to empower Dalits.

We hold every man and women to be made by God in His own image. Jesus died on the Cross to make this a reality for us.

2. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT -- Equitable development and removal of regional imbalances:

Justice Krishna Iyer famously said “In an obsession with the billionaires, we are forgetting the Billions [of poor of India]”. The Prime Minister has often spoken of the Human f ace of development. This Human face has been woefully missing. The suicides by farmers, the growth of disillusionment among poor youth and their gravitation to extremism, economically driven crime in urban areas by people seeking a `good life’ are warning posts we cannot afford to ignore. The government’s single minded focus must be on equitable distribution of the fruits of development beginning with the very basics – food, water, a roof over the head, education for the children, and primary health.

3. Promotion of Feeling of Security among minorities and other vulnerable sections:
Minorities seem to be directly isolated as if part of a design and State and Media have both acquiesced in this. Terrorism should not be defined by the religion of the criminal, but by identifying the person who commits the crime. India unfortunately turns a blind eye to hate campaigns, especially those sustained against the Muslim and Christian Communities. This has led to the demonization of communities, making them vulnerable in many ways. The government and society must show uncompressing committeemen to the rule of law. There must a response mechanism, an early warning system, a rapid action force and strategy to nip communal mischief in the bud. The minorities must be able to see their face in every edifice and branch of the state, in every instrument of power – Judiciary, Administration, and police.
State culpability must be addressed honestly. Police impunity must be ended. We regret the guilty of most communal riots, and especially those of 1984 anti Sikh violence, the 1993 and 2002 anti Muslim violence and other incidents remain unpunished.
4. Education – Promotion of Education among Minorities, Scheduled castes and scheduled Tribes

The state must reclaim it role in the education system which it has ceded to private and big business. Rural education must be closely monitored; text material, pedagogy and personnel must be screened to ensure there is no hate taught to the young Indian citizen.

5. Communal Harmony: we are a harmonious people. Level play grounds, equal opportunities, if through law such as the creation of an Equal Opportunities Commission, and close monitoring of development plans and law and order will go a long way in reassuming the communities. Subordinate and grassroots strucrur4es, peace committees, consultations can only help in this dialogue of life.


Thank you.


THE TOLL
ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE
24 August – 9 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
7 Districts affected
33 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. TAMIL NADU 4 Churches attacked

7. UTTARAKHAND 2 murdered – aged priest and employee