After another visit – from 3rd February to 7th February 2008 -- to Kandhamala in Orissa, scene of the Christmas 2007 anti Christian violence, and a day long stay in the refugee camp at Barakhama, some major issues of culpability, impunity, and human rights remain unanswered.
Dear Friends
When we first came to the Kandhamala hill district of Orissa India on 29th December 2007, we had thought that the worst had been seen of human nature -- when impelled by political brinkmanship, bigotry, and hatred. My colleagues Advocate Nicholas Barla and Social worker Hemant Nayak and I last week discovered how wrong we were. In a second visit to the Kandhamala we again surveyed the aftermath of the carnage, arson, desecration, and assault of human dignity evident in the Christmas week violence by Hindutva gangs in the forests and villages. This time again, we saw almost every single church, house, school, or building which had been targeted by the mobs, as also the refugee camp in the Barakhama township high school. We had expected some decrease in tension in the villages and hamlets. We thought there would be some evidence of probity and transparency in the criminal investigation and justice delivery system, some compassion in the relief and rehabilitation process, some formal questioning of matters of impunity of police and magistracy, some sense of responsibility in instruments of governance. And we had hoped for some contrition in political parties, and some conscience in the politicians and civil society in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa state.
We were disappointed on every single point. It is only a larger faith in the Indian Constitution, Higher Judiciary and the national civil society that prevents utter frustration and dismay,
I narrate here just a small part of the continuing misery and trauma in the Kandhamala district, for information, and partly for the record, as truth too fades from memory, and from the record books, in the face of a constant deluge of falsehood in a large section of the local media, inventing an anthropological and sociological fiction, and attempts at rewriting the past:
Archbishop Raphael Cheenath, who first came to Orissa close to four decades ago as a priest of the Society of the Divine Word, has described is as a diabolic violence, a conspiracy.
In the aftermath, one sees even in the official response hints of a fascist thesis. The men, who masterminded and inspired the violence, and the fountainhead of the hate, roam the forests free of any restraint, without fear even of the Constitution of India.
THE REFUGEE CAMP AT BARAKHAMA: This is the only refugee camp ever organised in India for Christian victims of communal violence. Forty-two days after the attacks, Archbishop Cheenath is at last allowed to visit his people in the affected area despite my repeated pleas to the State administration. His Eminence Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, the President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, was also barred from coming to Kandhamala to see the situation for himself. He could visit only on 29th January, 2008, more than a month after the atrocities. The District Magistrate has ordered that only the State Government can distribute relief through the Red Cross. NGOs and Church institutions, which were in the vanguard of relief operations in the State during past calamities such as the Super Cyclone, are still not allowed to bring any material. The Government is distributing the very basic level of relief. The people feel that it is not enough to meet their current needs. It does not cover many issues health, hygiene, and human dignity.
In my first visit, I had seen several pregnant women, and at least five very sick men. I ask of them. Three of the men have died since I met them. One of them died of unknown illness. Two others died of injuries they had sustained in the attacks by members of the Sangh Parivar trained and motivated by the self styled Swami Lakhmanananda Saraswati, the local head now of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Whey did these men die in the camp, and not in a hospital in Bhubaneswar or the district capital at Phulbani? No one seems to know. Were the bodies examined in a forensic autopsy to find the cause of death? Apparently not. Have been people been charged with the murder of these two men? The police and magistracy are not telling. Under Indian law, cases of criminal assault or attempted murder automatically, so to say, are re-registered as cases of murder, with clauses of criminal conspiracy added on. No one seems to know if the police have done so and are looking for the murderers.
The plight of the pregnant women and of the women in the camp in general, is possibly worse. Because they are living and have to suffer the pangs of being a woman in an absolutely undeveloped situation. The women have no gynecological experts available on hand, it seems. There are not even toilets for them to go to at night. They have to go out into the fields to answer calls of nature. This, some officials say, is exactly what they do in normal times. But times have changed. When they, and their men folk, go out to the forest, they now face hostile mobs who question their coming out of the camp. The taunts can be dangerous. The Union Government’s police force stands guard, but it only for so long that they can keep the peace. Even the Central police officers are worried what would happen once they leave.
There is no effort at even beginning a process of dialogue and reconciliation.
Quite the contrary.
The Government’s rehabilitation attempt is designed to push the Christian refugees into a Ghetto.
Not all refugees have land of their own. They cannot even buy land in the area even if they want to, because the local people’s minds have been poisoned by the Sangh Parivar. The district administration therefore wants many dozens of them to be settled in a Christian conclave with about 400 square feet of land for a two room house each – with a kitchenette, but of course, without a toilet.
The administration however has not been able to find even this plot of land for them, because the villagers do not allow the Tehsildar, the junior revenue magistrate to even measure out the land from the tracts owned by the government. The last time this officer, called a Tehsildar, dared go to measure the land, the link chain measure was snatched and he was chased away. The police are sheepish. They had looked on as the majesty of the law retreated in front of the terror of the Sangh Parivar’s goons. And so the refugees stay in the safety of the camp, under tents, in the cold, without too many blankets. And without toilets.
THE PLIGHT OF STUDENTS: Repeat visits confirm once again what the Prime Minister of India has been told by the church in their representations. How deep the impact of the violence goes can be gauged by the fact that in the refugee camp and elsewhere, the students face annual exams without books and without stationery. Many of them will miss out on the matriculation and secondary examinations; will have to drop an academic year. The older children may miss out on career opportunities. No one in the administrations seems to care. There is no answer to questions if examinations for these unfortunate students will be postponed for a few months, as was done in Gujarat 2002, or in the aftermath of the Tsunami.
THE CASE OF THE MISSING MEN: Several villages are without men, once the sun sets. Such is the terror of the police against the Christians that the men just cannot sleep in their own homes. They remain in the forested hills.
FORCED CONVERSION TO HINDUISM: A dozen times and more, we hear stories of isolated Christian families being made to shave their head. They are being told to convert to Hinduism. These stories are repeated all the way from Phulbani at one end of the Kandhamala district to Brahminigaon at the other end in the east. Archbishop Cheenath, with whom we travelled to some of the areas to seethe interaction of the people with him, agrees that their most urgent need is security, not only for their personal lives but for their existence in Kandhamala district. “The people are terribly frightened as if they are still expecting another onslaught because the perpetrators of these despicable crimes on the occasion of Christmas are freely moving about, brandishing their weapons and shouting slogans and conducting clandestine meetings. Such were the preparations that ultimately led to this diabolic attack. And in some areas, in spite of the presence of the so-called force, looting is still going on from the vandalized locations.The Sangh Parivar organised several ‘jagna’ or prayer assemblies where hate is spewed against Christians.
A more detailed questioning of eye-witnesses, and going through copies of several affidavits and First Information Reports that have been posted to senior officers because the local police do not register the complaints, makes it is clear that the attacks were orchestrated and involved a well trained core cadre which had been given physical training, had been brain washed at secret meetings. Eye witnessed even at the Leprosarium managed by Brothers of the Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teresa confirmed that the attackers had con summed liquor. They had gathered first in small groups in different places, waited for their leaders, and then marched towards their target with loud shuts of their Hindutva slogans. Magistrates present in the leprosarium made off as the mobs collected. The mobs destroyed and burnt everything, and looted all that they could lay their hands on, including live goats, chicken, rabbits and grain and powered milk meant for the patients. Another whistle and they melted away into the forest.
My colleagues and I had published the Non Government White paper earlier in January.
The Christian legal response is slowly taking shape, but not fast enough, and requires senior guidance. Civil society response is still non-existence.
The following questions remain:
Culpability of Central Government
1.1 Intelligence agencies, as also central government agencies working in the area, are culpable for inaction or complicity as the activities of the Sangh Parivar, especially the Bajrang Dal and VHP, RSS were in the open and with aggressive bravado including the final planning and details of the attacks.
1.2 The Honourable Governor has been empowered to ensure peace and good governance of the Scheduled areas under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution. Kandhamala district is a scheduled district. When the violence took place, it should have automatically invoked the gubernatorial action. There is no transparency on the nature of communication between the district authorities and the state government with the Governor.
Culpability of State Government, and especially of its agents in the district, the Collector and Superintendent of Police
1.3 Why did the Superintendent of Police and Collector of Kandhamala district permit the `bandh’ or agitation called by the Kui Vikas Samaj on 25th and 26th December 007 which are Government acknowledged religious holidays of the Christian community.
1.4 The Superintendent of Police and the District Collector had been repeatedly informed by the people and people in position in the Church about the possible attack on them by Sangh Parivar followers of Lakhmanananda Saraswati, but they did not order any preventive or pre-emptive official steps, neither did they arrange for any security measures for the Christian community.
1.5 In Brahminigaon, Balliguda, Darigbadi, Phringia, the Inspector In charge of the Police or the Officer I charge of the police post were aware of the possible attacks on Christians in the areas of their jurisdiction. Despite this prior knowledge, the Sub Divisional Police Office and the Sub Collector who are directly responsible for binding the peace and supervising the law and order situation did not take necessary and appropriate action.
1.6 The state Police intelligence organisations, Criminal Intelligence and investigation units, the Bureau of Intelligence apparently either did not know about the impending clash, or did not understand the significance of the information, or did not bother to inform superior authority..
1.7 What was the role of the Forest department offices and Staff as much o the activities of the Sangh Parivar were taking place there, including training camps, the plot to cut trees to block roads and to cut telephone lines including WLL [wireless local loop village telephone systems which are owned by the Government of India. The telephone structures for mobile phone transmissions that were switched off at strategic times. No action has been taken to trace the criminals.
1.8 The state highways and national highway number 317 passing through the affected were blocked by trees. How do the authorities explain the delay in removing the road blocks, most o which could have been easily done to open access to police forces? What is the total number of trees so felled by the Sangh Parivar? What action ahs the district forest office and his subordinate officers taken? What was the role of the forest rangers
1.9 We understand that the ITDA [Integrated tribal development agency] of the State Government which is directly responsible for the tribal areas should have been informing their superiors, but failed to do so.
1.10 The State Home ministry, which is directly concerned with issues of law and order has a full record of past acts of violence by the Bajrang Dal, VHP, and RSS, and of Lakhmanananda, and has been extremely indulgent towards them. It has also been very kind to his lieutenants Giani Sahu, Ramesh Sahu, Shivnananda Patnaik, Sarupanda Patnaik, Pati.
1.11 How many people have been rendered permanently or temporarily unemployed because of the violence?
1.12 Why the BJP and some other political parties were allowed during the curfew to tour the affected areas.
1.13 What is the status of “”Danda Daba’ [sacred groves] of the ancient religions of the adivasis of the region. Have they been recorded, documented, protected, and preserved. How many hav been destroyed, and why whom. Any cases registered.
1.14 Number of cases registered also under SC and ST Prevention of atrocity act 1989 against aggressors who injured christens and others.
1.15 Has OFRA, the so called Religious Freedom law, been applied against Sangh Parivar., If not, why not?
1.16 There has been gender violence against Christian religious women and other women.
1.17 What action has government taken so far against hate speeches of Saraswati recorded by policemen accompanying the swami after 24th December violence?
1.18 What steps has government taken to improve communications in Kandhamala, including installing more towers for mobile phones and WLL phones?
1.19 Has a case against people been registered s for the death of cow killed in the arson on convent in Balliguda?
1.20 What provision for security has been made once the Central Reserve Police Force leaves?
1.21 Sources of income of the said Swami?
An appendix: As the nation pays tribute to Baba Amte, a most well deserved tribute for his life long service to victims of Leprosy, it is also important to be reminded how some self styled `patriotic’ groups treat others who also serve victims of leprosy, tuberculosis and other communicable diseases deep in the forests of the Kandhamala district of Orissa, India.
From Brother Oscar Tete
Local Superior of the Missionaries of Charity
Shanti Nivas
Srasananda, PO Telapally,
Kandhamala District, Orissa 762 011
Dated 5th February 2008
To The Officer in Charge,
Police Station Sadar, Phulbani
Kandhamala District, Orissa
Re: In the matter of case Number 66 Dated 31.12.2007. Additional First Information Report, without prejudice, in the mater of attack on Brothers of Missionaries of Charity running the Shanti Nivas home for Tuberculosis patients and Leprosy afflicted persons, and looting and destruction of property in arson and violence on Christmas day 25th December 2007, on the above mentioned Medical centre buildings, Brother’ residence, Catholic Chapel, Shrine of the Blessed Mother Mary, Dispensary, food godown, and theft of medicines, materials, goats, rabbits and other animals. Also, the destruction and disruption of the telephone and electric connections, and destruction of the government property of the WLL phone system.
Sir,
We had on 2nd January 2008 filed a complaints with PS Sadar Phulbani on the above mentioned attack on me and my fellow Brothers and medical centre inmates, as also on our home, medial centre and other buildings, large scale arson and destruction of all property, and looting of our goods, materials, food, animals, and dispersal of our patients under duress in the presence of the a magistrate and three policemen including the OIC and a head constable together with over 20 Home Guards. At the time of the attack by local members of the RSS as well as outsiders belonging to the same group which are followers of one Lakhmanananda Saraswati with his ashram at Chokapada, we had to run away for our lives as we were being chased by many of these people who were pelting stones at us and threatening us with sharp edged weapons and fire arms.
At that time, to our surprise, the police also told the local villagers who were near the Chapel on Christmas day to also run away and leave the village.
In that frame of mind and in utter fear of our lives, we with great difficultly; were able to at last file a basic report with the police on 2nd January 2008. In our fear of that time and our anxiety, the report was very basic and incomplete because the situation continued to be very tense and we were fearful even to come to the police station lest we be assaulted once again.
Now we have surveyed the damage done and the impact of the violence on Shanti Nivas, and wish to report the full details of the incident and the extent of damage as follows for inclusion in our initial report and complaint.
My name is Brother Oscar Tete, MC, son of Mr. Tintus Tete, resident of Shanti Nivas, Srasananda, District Kandhamala, Orissa since June 2007 an originally resident of Missionaries of Charity General Office, 7 Mansatala Row, Kidderpur, Kolkata, West Bengal. I am the local superior of Shanti Nivas which is located 15 kilometers from Phulbani town and about ten kilometers from Sadar police station on Phulbani-Balliguda road. The Shanti Nivas caters to patients of leprosy, Tuberculosis and other communicable diseases. It is the only medical centre of its kind in Kandhamala district and currently provides free of cost service to about 33 patients [at the time of attack] in the wards and about 20 outpatients every day. The Shanti Nivas complex consists of two wards for 33 patients, twenty beds for general patients like local illness, malnutrition, old age complications and mental retardation. The centre has been functioning without incident since its founding nearly twenty five years ago. All current patients belong to the Hindu religion and to both the Dalit and Tribal communities with whom we have always had excellent relations.
Our complex also consists of a medical godown, food store for the patients, offices, residence for the four MC Brothers, outhouses or the animals including goats and rabbits, chicken etc. We also have ambulances and godowns for our vehicles and stores.
Central to our medical centre was our spiritual space, including a Chapel and a Grotto with a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Chapel and the Grotto had been decorated for Christmas on 24th December 2007 as we were expecting the normal large participation of the local people without exclusion of any community, as also the pious prayerful presence of local believers and faithful. This was the normal practice very year and every year, it was a very joyful occasion enjoyed by all local people. The police, in fact, had always and every year provided us adequate police guards on the occasion.
This year also on 24th December night 2007,a group of Orissa Home guards cam to the Shanti Nivas where local faithful had already gathered by Nine PM for the annual prayer service to mark the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
At 4 pm, I was in Phulbani to make some last minute purchases in the market for Christmas and to provide some Christmas gifts to the Prisoners in Phulbani jail as is our normal annual practice to share the joy of Christmas with all people. I was returning by about 7 pm to Shanti Nivas when I learnt that Churches had been attacked in Brahminigaon by RSS followers of Swami Lakhmanananda Saraswati, who has been spreading hate against Christians. I discovered that the road to Shanti Nivas had been blocked by a group people who were armed with axes and weapons. Some of them were cutting trees down and putting them across the road to block it. I was apprehensive of my security, and was forced to leave my vehicle. The ambulance returned to Phulbani with the driver. I walked to Shanti Nivas.
By the time I reached Shanti Nivas, it was 9 p.m. Knowing that Churches were being attacked in various places in the Kandhamala district, I was apprehensive about the security and well being of the local believers who I knew were present in the chapel attached to the medical centre of Shanti Nivas. I asked a handful of our young believers to stay back with four brothers of the MCs. And I urged the women and children to return to the security and safety of their homes in the villages around. The women and children left reluctantly.
At 11.30 p.m., a group of Orissa Home guards came to Shanti Nivas. They were carrying only lathis.
That night, we cancelled all prayer services for the public, but continued to pray silently and privately for the safety of our villagers and our fellow believers in various parts of Kandhamala who were being attacked.
In the morning of Christmas day 25th December 2007 at 11 a.m., the local villagers who were Christian believers and their friends gathered once again at the Chapel for the prayer service. The prayer service was over by 2.30 noon and the Home guards were present during this entire process.
Around 3.30, a fresh group of Orissa Home guards personnel came to join the existing Home guard along with a Lady Magistrate whose name can be ascertained from the official records, and the OIC, and two policemen. Their names can also be ascertained from the official diaries of the police station.
Around 9.15 p.m., the Lady magistrate called me to her presence where she was sitting near the staircase of the chapel. She asked me to shift the 33 patients to the villages saying “I cannot protect you with only the Home Guards with lathis. I have no rifles and so you shift your patients to the village where they will be safe, and start removing your important possessions”.
I told her it would not be so easy or possible to shift the patients, some of whom were very serious and bed ridden, some were blind and it was difficult to carry them on such long distances on foot to the villages.
The Lady magistrate then told me to shift all the 33 patients to a single room. I did this with great difficulty with the assistance of the young Christians who were with me.
I started removing some personal and important possessions such as clothing and a little cash, bank passbook etc.
While I was doing this, I and my other MC Brothers discovered that the Lady Magistrate and the Police were not to be found, and had apparently deserted us and only the Home Guards remained.
At around 10 p.m. on 25th December 2007, our electric supply was cut, as also the telephone connection which was a government owned WLL connection with its tower attached to the Residence of the MC Brothers on one side of the Shanti Nivas complex.
As the lights went off and the power cut, we came out in fear as never before had the power gone off at this time of the night.
As soon as we came out, we saw a large group of people coming towards us. They were shouting Jai Shri Ram, as also Hindu-Hindu Bhai Bhai. I could hear these slogans clearly. They were also abusing Christians in the foulest language. I saw one of the persons in the front of the aggressors holding a sword like sharp weapon. We started running in fear of our lives from the murderous mob.
But even as the mob was approaching, and later through asking other eye witnesses, we could identify the following persons to be part of the murderous attacking mob. Their names are contained in the list at Annexure I:
We hid on the other wide of the boundary wall and watched in terror and fear as the mob divided into groups as if in a well planned attack. One group came to the grotto which had the statue of Virgin Mary. They smashed the statue and set fire to it using some oil like substance they had brought with them in plastic carriers. They used the same oil to put on the Christmas Crib decoration in front of the Grotto and burnt it, in the process burning a part of the tree branch overhanging the decoration.
Another part of the mob consisting of many people -- some of whom carried more oil in blue and other coloured plastic automobile oil cans -- broke open the door of the chapel. Inside, they smashed the altar and decorations, sprinkled automobile oil on the material and set it on fire. They also broke and destroyed every single statue and paintings on the walls of the chapel, altar, vestry and inner rooms, including copies of the Holy Bible, the Cross and images of Lord Jesus Christ. They then burnt there.
The mob then went to the back of the complex and totally destroyed our Residence, our office, the wards of the patients, the kitchen, the godowns, guest room, drivers room, office and garage. Even the toilets were not spared and the ceramic toilets were broken, the water pipes smashed, the Holy Cross pulled down and table fans, windows and electric fixtures destroyed.
The mob then came down the slope and attacked another area and the medical store, destroying precious and expensive medical equipment, medicines and a stretcher. The ambulance escaped damage because it had been sent to Phulbani.
Some of them then chased our many animals and killed them and carried them away, including rabbits and goats which we had kept. We are attaching tentative list of the goods looted and properties destroyed in Annexure II.
On 26th December 2007, the villagers, who were still very scared and frightened, came to see if we were safe. Seeing all the destruction, they told us they would help us and take care of any patients who came.
We and our patients were provided food by the villagers with the government not helping us at all.
From 26th December 2007 night till the night of 28th December 2007, we spent every night in the forest for fear we would be killed. We returned during the day to take care of the remaining patients.
We are still not able to resume normalcy in the Shanti Nivas nor can we treat our patients. We have reluctantly sent the patients to other centres run by us in Berhampur and other towns.
We still live in daily fear of mortal danger to our life, and injury to our person.
We have not been given any security.
We also do not know the fate of our oral complaints to senior officers.
We also do not know if any of the assailants, who have been identified by us and by the villagers who were eye witnesses, have been arrested by the police.
We are filing this additional report to make it part of the official FIR filed by us on 2nd January 2008.
We deeply regret that even that report was refused to be registered by the police officers at Police Station Sadar giving us vague reasons. We then gave a written copy to senior officers, which was acknowledged OIC PS Sadar on 2nd January 2008.
All that I have stated in this report has been witnessed by my personally.
Brother Oscar Tete MC
Local Superior
Shanti Nivas, Srasananda, Kandhamala District
Orissa
Enclosures
Preliminary list of assailants identified by us.
Assessment of damage to property and material possessions
Monday, February 11, 2008
A First Information Report
[John Dayal’s Note: As the nation pays tribute to Baba Amte, a most well deserved tribute for his life long service to victims of Leprosy, it is also important to be reminded how some self styled `patriotic’ groups treat others who also serve victims of leprosy, tuberculosis and other communicable diseases deep in the forests of the Kandhamala district of Orissa, India.]
From Brother Oscar Tete
Local Superior of the Missionaries of Charity
Shanti Nivas
Srasananda, PO Telapally,
Kandhamala District, Orissa 762 011
Dated 5th February 2008
To The Officer in Charge,
Police Station Sadar, Phulbani
Kandhamala District, Orissa
Re: In the matter of case Number 66 Dated 31.12.2007. Additional First Information Report, without prejudice, in the mater of attack on Brothers of Missionaries of Charity running the Shanti Nivas home for Tuberculosis patients and Leprosy afflicted persons, and looting and destruction of property in arson and violence on Christmas day 25th December 2007, on the above mentioned Medical centre buildings, Brother’ residence, Catholic Chapel, Shrine of the Blessed Mother Mary, Dispensary, food godown, and theft of medicines, materials, goats, rabbits and other animals. Also, the destruction and disruption of the telephone and electric connections, and destruction of the government property of the WLL phone system.
Sir,
We had on 2nd January 2008 filed a complaints with PS Sadar Phulbani on the above mentioned attack on me and my fellow Brothers and medical centre inmates, as also on our home, medial centre and other buildings, large scale arson and destruction of all property, and looting of our goods, materials, food, animals, and dispersal of our patients under duress in the presence of the a magistrate and three policemen including the OIC and a head constable together with over 20 Home Guards. At the time of the attack by local members of the RSS as well as outsiders belonging to the same group which are followers of one Lakhmanananda Saraswati with his ashram at Chokapada, we had to run away for our lives as we were being chased by many of these people who were pelting stones at us and threatening us with sharp edged weapons and fire arms.
At that time, to our surprise, the police also told the local villagers who were near the Chapel on Christmas day to also run away and leave the village.
In that frame of mind and in utter fear of our lives, we with great difficultly; were able to at last file a basic report with the police on 2nd January 2008. In our fear of that time and our anxiety, the report was very basic and incomplete because the situation continued to be very tense and we were fearful even to come to the police station lest we be assaulted once again.
Now we have surveyed the damage done and the impact of the violence on Shanti Nivas, and wish to report the full details of the incident and the extent of damage as follows for inclusion in our initial report and complaint.
My name is Brother Oscar Tete, MC, son of Mr Tintus Tete, resident of Shanti Nivas, Srasananda, District Kandhamala, Orissa since June 2007 an originally resident of Missionaries of Charity General Office, 7 Mansatala Row, Kidderpur, Kolkata, West Bengal. I am the local superior of Shanti Nivas which is located 15 kilometers from Phulbani town and about ten kilometers from Sadar police station on Phulbani-Baliguda road. The Shanti Nivas caters to patients of leprosy, Tuberculosis and other communicable diseases. It is the only medical centre of its kind in Kandhamala district and currently provides free of cost service to about 33 patients [at the time of attack] in the wards and about 20 outpatients every day. The Shanti Nivas complex consists of two wards for 33 patients, twenty beds for general patients like local illness, malnutrition, old age complications and mental retardation. The centre has been functioning without incident since its founding nearly twenty five years ago. All current patients belong to the Hindu religion and to both the Dalit and Tribal communities with whom we have always had excellent relations.
Our complex also consists of a medical godown, food store for the patients, offices, residence for the four MC Brothers, outhouses or the animals including goats and rabbits, chicken etc. We also have ambulances and godowns for our vehicles and stores.
Central to our medical centre was our spiritual space, including a Chapel and a Grotto with a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Chapel and the Grotto had been decorated for Christmas on 24th December 2007 as we were expecting the normal large participation of the local people without exclusion of any community, as also the pious prayerful presence of local believers and faithful. This was the normal practice very year and every year, it was a very joyful occasion enjoyed by all local people. The police, in fact, had always and every year provided us adequate police guards on the occasion.
This year also on 24th December night 2007,a group of Orissa Home guards cam to the Shanti Nivas where local faithful had already gathered by Nine PM for the annual prayer service to mark the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
At 4 pm, I was in Phulbani to make some last minute purchases in the market for Christmas and to provide some Christmas gifts to the Prisoners in Phulbani jail as is our normal annual practice to share the joy of Christmas with all people. I was returning by about 7 pm to Shanti Nivas when I learnt that Churches had been attacked in Brahminigaon by RSS followers of Swami Lakhmanananda Saraswati, who has been spreading hate against Christians. I discovered that the road to Shanti Nivas had been blocked by a group people who were armed with axes and weapons. Some of them were cutting trees down and putting them across the road to block it. I was apprehensive of my security, and was forced to leave my vehicle. The ambulance returned to Phulbani with the driver. I walked to Shanti Nivas.
By the time I reached Shanti Nivas, it was 9 p.m. Knowing that Churches were being attacked in various places in the Kandhamala district, I was apprehensive about the security and well being of the local believers who I knew were present in the chapel attached to the medical centre of Shanti Nivas. I asked a handful of our young believers to stay back with four brothers of the MCs. And I urged the women and children to return to the security and safety of their homes in the villages around. The women and children left reluctantly.
At 11.30 p.m., a group of Orissa Home guards came to Shanti Nivas. They were carrying only lathis.
That night, we cancelled all prayer services for the public, but continued to pray silently and privately for the safety of our villagers and our fellow believers in various parts of Kandhamala who were being attacked.
In the morning of Christmas day 25th December 2007 at 11 a.m., the local villagers who were Christian believers and their friends gathered once again at the Chapel for the prayer service. The prayer service was over by 2.30 noon and the Home guards were present during this entire process.
Around 3.30, a fresh group of Orissa Home guards personnel came to join the existing Home guard along with a Lady Magistrate whose name can be ascertained from the official records, and the OIC, and two policemen. Their names can also be ascertained from the official diaries of the police station.
Around 9.15 p.m., the Lady magistrate called me to her presence where she was sitting near the staircase of the chapel. She asked me to shift the 33 patients to the villages saying “I cannot protect you with only the Home Guards with lathis. I have no rifles and so you shift your patients to the village where they will be safe, and start removing your important possessions”.
I told her it would not be so easy or possible to shift the patients, some of whom were very serious and bed ridden, some were blind and it was difficult to carry them on such long distances on foot to the villages.
The Lady magistrate then told me to shift all the 33 patients to a single room. I did this with great difficulty with the assistance of the young Christians who were with me.
I started removing some personal and important possessions such as clothing and a little cash, bank passbook etc.
While I was doing this, I and my other MC Brothers discovered that the Lady Magistrate and the Police were not to be found, and had apparently deserted us and only the Home Guards remained.
At around 10 p.m. on 25th December 2007, our electric supply was cut, as also the telephone connection which was a government owned WLL connection with its tower attached to the Residence of the MC Brothers on one side of the Shanti Nivas complex.
As the lights went off and the power cut, we came out in fear as never before had the power gone off at this time of the night.
As soon as we came out, we saw a large group of people coming towards us. They were shouting Jai Shri Ram, as also Hindu-Hindu Bhai Bhai. I could hear these slogans clearly. They were also abusing Christians in the foulest language. I saw one of the persons in the front of the aggressors holding a sword like sharp weapon. We started running in fear of our lives from the murderous mob.
But even as the mob was approaching, and later through asking other eye witnesses, we could identify the following persons to be part of the murderous attacking mob. Their names are contained in the list at Annexure I:
We hid on the other wide of the boundary wall and watched in terror and fear as the mob divided into groups as if in a well planned attack. One group came to the grotto which had the statue of Virgin Mary. They smashed the statue and set fire to it using some oil like substance they had brought with them in plastic carriers. They used the same oil to put on the Christmas Crib decoration in front of the Grotto and burnt it, in the process burning a part of the tree branch overhanging the decoration.
Another part of the mob consisting of many people -- some of whom carried more oil in blue and other coloured plastic automobile oil cans -- broke open the door of the chapel. Inside, they smashed the altar and decorations, sprinkled automobile oil on the material and set it on fire. They also broke and destroyed every single statue and paintings on the walls of the chapel, altar, vestry and inner rooms, including copies of the Holy Bible, the Cross and images of Lord Jesus Christ. They then burnt there.
The mob then went to the back of the complex and totally destroyed our Residence, our office, the wards of the patients, the kitchen, the godowns, guest room, drivers room, office and garage. Even the toilets were not spared and the ceramic toilets were broken, the water pipes smashed, the Holy Cross pulled down and table fans, windows and electric fixtures destroyed.
The mob then came down the slope and attacked another area and the medical store, destroying precious and expensive medical equipment, medicines and a stretcher. The ambulance escaped damage because it had been sent to Phulbani.
Some of them then chased our many animals and killed them and carried them away, including rabbits and goats which we had kept. We are attaching tentative list of the goods looted and properties destroyed in Annexure II.
On 26th December 2007, the villagers, who were still very scared and frightened, came to see if we were safe. Seeing all the destruction, they told us they would help us and take care of any patients who came.
We and our patients were provided food by the villagers with the government not helping us at all.
From 26th December 2007 night till the night of 28th December 2007, we spent every night in the forest for fear we would be killed. We returned during the day to take care of the remaining patients.
We are still not able to resume normalcy in the Shanti Nivas nor can we treat our patients. We have reluctantly sent the patients to other centres run by us in Berhampur and other towns.
We still live in daily fear of mortal danger to our life, and injury to our person.
We have not been given any security.
We also do not know the fate of our oral complaints to senior officers.
We also do not know if any of the assailants, who have been identified by us and by the villagers who were eye witnesses, have been arrested by the police.
We are filing this additional report to make it part of the official FIR filed by us on 2nd January 2008.
We deeply regret that even that report was refused to be registered by the police officers at Police Station Sadar giving us vague reasons. We then gave a written copy to senior officers, which was acknowledged OIC PS Sadar on 2nd January 2008.
All that I have stated in this report has been witnessed by my personally.
Brother Oscar Tete MC
Local Superior
Shanti Nivas, Srasananda, Kandhamala District
Orissa
Enclosures
Preliminary list of assailants identified by us.
Assessment of damage to property and material possessions
From Brother Oscar Tete
Local Superior of the Missionaries of Charity
Shanti Nivas
Srasananda, PO Telapally,
Kandhamala District, Orissa 762 011
Dated 5th February 2008
To The Officer in Charge,
Police Station Sadar, Phulbani
Kandhamala District, Orissa
Re: In the matter of case Number 66 Dated 31.12.2007. Additional First Information Report, without prejudice, in the mater of attack on Brothers of Missionaries of Charity running the Shanti Nivas home for Tuberculosis patients and Leprosy afflicted persons, and looting and destruction of property in arson and violence on Christmas day 25th December 2007, on the above mentioned Medical centre buildings, Brother’ residence, Catholic Chapel, Shrine of the Blessed Mother Mary, Dispensary, food godown, and theft of medicines, materials, goats, rabbits and other animals. Also, the destruction and disruption of the telephone and electric connections, and destruction of the government property of the WLL phone system.
Sir,
We had on 2nd January 2008 filed a complaints with PS Sadar Phulbani on the above mentioned attack on me and my fellow Brothers and medical centre inmates, as also on our home, medial centre and other buildings, large scale arson and destruction of all property, and looting of our goods, materials, food, animals, and dispersal of our patients under duress in the presence of the a magistrate and three policemen including the OIC and a head constable together with over 20 Home Guards. At the time of the attack by local members of the RSS as well as outsiders belonging to the same group which are followers of one Lakhmanananda Saraswati with his ashram at Chokapada, we had to run away for our lives as we were being chased by many of these people who were pelting stones at us and threatening us with sharp edged weapons and fire arms.
At that time, to our surprise, the police also told the local villagers who were near the Chapel on Christmas day to also run away and leave the village.
In that frame of mind and in utter fear of our lives, we with great difficultly; were able to at last file a basic report with the police on 2nd January 2008. In our fear of that time and our anxiety, the report was very basic and incomplete because the situation continued to be very tense and we were fearful even to come to the police station lest we be assaulted once again.
Now we have surveyed the damage done and the impact of the violence on Shanti Nivas, and wish to report the full details of the incident and the extent of damage as follows for inclusion in our initial report and complaint.
My name is Brother Oscar Tete, MC, son of Mr Tintus Tete, resident of Shanti Nivas, Srasananda, District Kandhamala, Orissa since June 2007 an originally resident of Missionaries of Charity General Office, 7 Mansatala Row, Kidderpur, Kolkata, West Bengal. I am the local superior of Shanti Nivas which is located 15 kilometers from Phulbani town and about ten kilometers from Sadar police station on Phulbani-Baliguda road. The Shanti Nivas caters to patients of leprosy, Tuberculosis and other communicable diseases. It is the only medical centre of its kind in Kandhamala district and currently provides free of cost service to about 33 patients [at the time of attack] in the wards and about 20 outpatients every day. The Shanti Nivas complex consists of two wards for 33 patients, twenty beds for general patients like local illness, malnutrition, old age complications and mental retardation. The centre has been functioning without incident since its founding nearly twenty five years ago. All current patients belong to the Hindu religion and to both the Dalit and Tribal communities with whom we have always had excellent relations.
Our complex also consists of a medical godown, food store for the patients, offices, residence for the four MC Brothers, outhouses or the animals including goats and rabbits, chicken etc. We also have ambulances and godowns for our vehicles and stores.
Central to our medical centre was our spiritual space, including a Chapel and a Grotto with a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Chapel and the Grotto had been decorated for Christmas on 24th December 2007 as we were expecting the normal large participation of the local people without exclusion of any community, as also the pious prayerful presence of local believers and faithful. This was the normal practice very year and every year, it was a very joyful occasion enjoyed by all local people. The police, in fact, had always and every year provided us adequate police guards on the occasion.
This year also on 24th December night 2007,a group of Orissa Home guards cam to the Shanti Nivas where local faithful had already gathered by Nine PM for the annual prayer service to mark the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
At 4 pm, I was in Phulbani to make some last minute purchases in the market for Christmas and to provide some Christmas gifts to the Prisoners in Phulbani jail as is our normal annual practice to share the joy of Christmas with all people. I was returning by about 7 pm to Shanti Nivas when I learnt that Churches had been attacked in Brahminigaon by RSS followers of Swami Lakhmanananda Saraswati, who has been spreading hate against Christians. I discovered that the road to Shanti Nivas had been blocked by a group people who were armed with axes and weapons. Some of them were cutting trees down and putting them across the road to block it. I was apprehensive of my security, and was forced to leave my vehicle. The ambulance returned to Phulbani with the driver. I walked to Shanti Nivas.
By the time I reached Shanti Nivas, it was 9 p.m. Knowing that Churches were being attacked in various places in the Kandhamala district, I was apprehensive about the security and well being of the local believers who I knew were present in the chapel attached to the medical centre of Shanti Nivas. I asked a handful of our young believers to stay back with four brothers of the MCs. And I urged the women and children to return to the security and safety of their homes in the villages around. The women and children left reluctantly.
At 11.30 p.m., a group of Orissa Home guards came to Shanti Nivas. They were carrying only lathis.
That night, we cancelled all prayer services for the public, but continued to pray silently and privately for the safety of our villagers and our fellow believers in various parts of Kandhamala who were being attacked.
In the morning of Christmas day 25th December 2007 at 11 a.m., the local villagers who were Christian believers and their friends gathered once again at the Chapel for the prayer service. The prayer service was over by 2.30 noon and the Home guards were present during this entire process.
Around 3.30, a fresh group of Orissa Home guards personnel came to join the existing Home guard along with a Lady Magistrate whose name can be ascertained from the official records, and the OIC, and two policemen. Their names can also be ascertained from the official diaries of the police station.
Around 9.15 p.m., the Lady magistrate called me to her presence where she was sitting near the staircase of the chapel. She asked me to shift the 33 patients to the villages saying “I cannot protect you with only the Home Guards with lathis. I have no rifles and so you shift your patients to the village where they will be safe, and start removing your important possessions”.
I told her it would not be so easy or possible to shift the patients, some of whom were very serious and bed ridden, some were blind and it was difficult to carry them on such long distances on foot to the villages.
The Lady magistrate then told me to shift all the 33 patients to a single room. I did this with great difficulty with the assistance of the young Christians who were with me.
I started removing some personal and important possessions such as clothing and a little cash, bank passbook etc.
While I was doing this, I and my other MC Brothers discovered that the Lady Magistrate and the Police were not to be found, and had apparently deserted us and only the Home Guards remained.
At around 10 p.m. on 25th December 2007, our electric supply was cut, as also the telephone connection which was a government owned WLL connection with its tower attached to the Residence of the MC Brothers on one side of the Shanti Nivas complex.
As the lights went off and the power cut, we came out in fear as never before had the power gone off at this time of the night.
As soon as we came out, we saw a large group of people coming towards us. They were shouting Jai Shri Ram, as also Hindu-Hindu Bhai Bhai. I could hear these slogans clearly. They were also abusing Christians in the foulest language. I saw one of the persons in the front of the aggressors holding a sword like sharp weapon. We started running in fear of our lives from the murderous mob.
But even as the mob was approaching, and later through asking other eye witnesses, we could identify the following persons to be part of the murderous attacking mob. Their names are contained in the list at Annexure I:
We hid on the other wide of the boundary wall and watched in terror and fear as the mob divided into groups as if in a well planned attack. One group came to the grotto which had the statue of Virgin Mary. They smashed the statue and set fire to it using some oil like substance they had brought with them in plastic carriers. They used the same oil to put on the Christmas Crib decoration in front of the Grotto and burnt it, in the process burning a part of the tree branch overhanging the decoration.
Another part of the mob consisting of many people -- some of whom carried more oil in blue and other coloured plastic automobile oil cans -- broke open the door of the chapel. Inside, they smashed the altar and decorations, sprinkled automobile oil on the material and set it on fire. They also broke and destroyed every single statue and paintings on the walls of the chapel, altar, vestry and inner rooms, including copies of the Holy Bible, the Cross and images of Lord Jesus Christ. They then burnt there.
The mob then went to the back of the complex and totally destroyed our Residence, our office, the wards of the patients, the kitchen, the godowns, guest room, drivers room, office and garage. Even the toilets were not spared and the ceramic toilets were broken, the water pipes smashed, the Holy Cross pulled down and table fans, windows and electric fixtures destroyed.
The mob then came down the slope and attacked another area and the medical store, destroying precious and expensive medical equipment, medicines and a stretcher. The ambulance escaped damage because it had been sent to Phulbani.
Some of them then chased our many animals and killed them and carried them away, including rabbits and goats which we had kept. We are attaching tentative list of the goods looted and properties destroyed in Annexure II.
On 26th December 2007, the villagers, who were still very scared and frightened, came to see if we were safe. Seeing all the destruction, they told us they would help us and take care of any patients who came.
We and our patients were provided food by the villagers with the government not helping us at all.
From 26th December 2007 night till the night of 28th December 2007, we spent every night in the forest for fear we would be killed. We returned during the day to take care of the remaining patients.
We are still not able to resume normalcy in the Shanti Nivas nor can we treat our patients. We have reluctantly sent the patients to other centres run by us in Berhampur and other towns.
We still live in daily fear of mortal danger to our life, and injury to our person.
We have not been given any security.
We also do not know the fate of our oral complaints to senior officers.
We also do not know if any of the assailants, who have been identified by us and by the villagers who were eye witnesses, have been arrested by the police.
We are filing this additional report to make it part of the official FIR filed by us on 2nd January 2008.
We deeply regret that even that report was refused to be registered by the police officers at Police Station Sadar giving us vague reasons. We then gave a written copy to senior officers, which was acknowledged OIC PS Sadar on 2nd January 2008.
All that I have stated in this report has been witnessed by my personally.
Brother Oscar Tete MC
Local Superior
Shanti Nivas, Srasananda, Kandhamala District
Orissa
Enclosures
Preliminary list of assailants identified by us.
Assessment of damage to property and material possessions
Sunday, February 10, 2008
This interview of John Dayal with the New Leader, one of the oldest news magazines in Asia, was recorded in November 2007, weeks before the Christmas Week violence against Christians erupted in the Kandhamala district of Orissa, India. New Leader published in its February 2008 issue.
QUESTION 1. Church in India should thank and congratulate you for your relentless fight on behalf of the Christian community in India. What motivates you?
JOHN DAYAL: Nothing that a human rights and civil society activist does can really compare with the courage, faith and forbearance of the victims, and those who survive persecution, terror, coercion, the physical violence and the humiliation that comes when there is an assault on his God given human dignity, the erosion of the freedoms guaranteed to a citizen by the Constitution of India.
Nothing can, of course, replace a human life lost, or recompense a widow or an orphan. We can pray with them, and in that prayer, find the strength in ourselves, as individuals and as society, to try and see that such tragedy is not repeated, such impunity is not allowed to go unchallenged.
It is perhaps that moment of prayer that sustains me as an activist, now nearing forty years in standing together with many others to say `Stop that tyranny, curb that vicious torch, be shamed of defying laws made by men, and afraid before you defy the law of God’. Activism, at the end of the day, is not a display of courage, or duty, or even love. It is surrender to God’s Will. After that there is no fear. It is the means, and it is an end in itself. I, therefore, seek no one’s gratitude. I do seek understanding, for sometimes one has to go against the grain. And I seek forgiveness, for sometimes what I say or do or write may seem to offend Hierarchy, leaders and others, or embarrass them in their own attempts at peace, reconciliation or negotiations with their tormentors.
QUESTION 2. Recently in a press statement, you had mentioned that roughly four incidents of Christian persecution take place in a week in India. This is shocking, since we had assumed that the plight of Christians in India will improve, once the BJP-led coalition lost power at the centre. Is anti-Christian persecution restricted to the BJP-ruled States in India?
JOHN DAYAL: I studied Physics as a student, and then worked in areas of Operational Research, surveys before becoming what is now called an Investigative Journalist back in the first years of the 1970s. That has taught me the power of data, of number crunching, in proving a point, and of field studies in discovering what others may want to remain hidden. These issues have included drugs and human trafficking, corruption and instances of bigotry and injustice, the forcible sterilizations of the Emergency of 1975-77, and of course the massive and penetrating sabotage of the Indian psyche and of its secular ethos by the Sangh Parivar from when it was just the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh and the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. That is how, leaning on the strong staff of the late Archbishop Alan de Lastic of Delhi, I could publish the first Unofficial White Paper of Violence against Christians in 1998, exposing the massive persecution of Christians across the country. We have sought to be able to publish that document every year since then, and I am happy its data, carefully collected and correlated, is by and large accepted by national and international Human Rights and Freedom of Faith institutions and organisations. It is in analysing such data that we find that even in 2007, there are almost 200 cases in 11 months – the year is yet to end, and these are but recorded and reported cases. Maybe there are hundreds of other cases which have not come to my notice.
Careful analysis shows persecution to be a complex criminal phenomenon. It involves massive hate campaigns. It involves vicious political forces and week Governments. Above all it implies slice, complicity or impunity of Government agencies such as police, civil administration and subordinate judiciary. Government is deaf and blind to hate campaigns, whether it is congress which is ruling or the BJP which is in power alone or in collation. The police will not register complaints. The civil administration will gleefully coerce schools, pressurise priests, abet religious fundamentalists, and often accompany mobs as they assault Christians. They ill not arrest culprits, nor will they convict guilty or award them just punishment. No wonder fundamentalists and mobs are encouraged. Media perceptions and unconcern aggravate matters.
Surely the religious fundamentalism and the criminal concept of nationalism that the Sangh Parivar espouses make persecution quite the norm in states ruled by them. The Sangh also penetrates the police, administration and local judiciary, and that means the entire system is loaded against the weaker elements of the minority communities, especially against Christians.
Sometimes, as in Himachal and other areas, the local Congress leadership seems to be in completion with the Sangh Parivar in appeasing the majority. Himachal hardly has any Christians, and neither does Rajasthan, but both states have laws designed to curb conversions! Mrs. Sonia Gandhi once responded to me to assure her Party, the Congress, opposed such laws, but apparently the Himachal chief minister does not care for what his political leader feels and says. His eye is always on the next election. We can challenge the Sangh, but when secular groups such as the Congress and the Left for political reasons actively or by default join forces against Christians, it really saddens me. Then I almost feel helpless.
3. Apart from the vicious campaign by the Sangh Parivar, are there other factors that contribute to anti-Christian violence?
There is what I call the Ravi Shankar-Niyogi Syndrome. You will recall the rule of Pandit Ravi Shankar, a Congressman but an arch Hindutva protagonist who was Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. He defied Jawaharlal Nehru, ignored his caution, and appointed Justice Niyogi to head a farcical commission designed to indict the Church for fraudulently and forcible conversions especially of tribals. That report mothered the anti conversion laws in many states.
That explains it all. The persecution is not a legitimate, if violent, response to Christian spiritual violence -- if you so want to describe evangelistic activity in urban, rural and tribal areas. The laws, which include the Presidential Order of 1950 which deprives Christian Dalits of their development rights, and the social and political perceptions, are designed to keep a vast population of the Dalits and the poor in the thrall and slavery of a few from the traditional social elite. There is virtually no persecution in areas which also do not also have harsh caste distinctions and Dalit or Tribal persecution. It is a one-on-one match! Political groups either encourage or condone persecution of Christians for political reasons.
QUESTION 4. Have national bodies like National Integration Council, of which you are a member, and the National Minorities Commission done anything to stop this?
ANSWER: The National Commission for Human rights does not look at religious persecution, leaving it to the national Minorities commission. Even otherwise I have problems with the NHRC whose focus is essentially on police and jails and torture, and that too not always honestly. It is little more than lip service. I recall at least one former Chief Justice of India who became NHRC chairman was strong supporter of the black law called POTA, used mostly against Muslims.
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes had, till Dr Buta Singh became its chairman, adopted a very hostile attitude towards Dalit Christians - whether the chair was a Congress person or a Bharatiya Janata Party ideologue and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh stalwart.
The National Commission for Minorities, barring the brief interlude when Dr James Massey, a Dalit, was the Christian member, has almost always had time servers or political appointees whose interests were anything but relating to the community. Some have been hostile to the community, some have been corrupt, and some have been retired politicians or bureaucrats whose ignorance has been exceeded only by their unconcern.
One went to the extent of saying he saw no persecution, because he had never been persecuted. Another was keen to bring the community to its knees before the RSS in the guise of a dialogue. Little wonder, therefore, that when the Union Cabinet devised the so called Communal Violence prevention Bill, it just did not cover the issues of Christians, and hate crimes and persecution of the micro minority. The Muslims, after their Gujarat pogrom experience, and Sikhs with the 2004 massacres, rightly rejected the CV Bill out of hand because it strengthened the hands of the police without helping the victims of communal violence. The CV prevention Bill did not even understand the persecution of Christians in various parts of India, or the massive hate campaign against the community carried out in tribal belts, villages and even in cities. Sad to say, in the many seminars organised by Civil Society and by Muslim groups and intellectuals, there were hardly any Christians present and almost no formal representation by Catholic and Protestant hierarchies.
QUESTION 5. Do you think individuals like the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and Sonia Gandhi are fully aware of this continuing harassment of Christians in India?
ANSWER: I am sure they are aware. It is not just the many memorandums the community has submitted to them in the last four years. Governors of many states have repeatedly written to the President and through him to the Home Minister. The Police Intelligence must have told them too. But I expect little of political figures.
QUESTION. Are human rights organisations outside India aware of this situation?
ANSWER: Every Human Rights group in India and abroad worth its salt is fully aware of the situation. Firstly, it is not just persecution of Christians. There is persecution of Muslims. There are issues of delayed justice for the Gujarat massacre victims, for the widows of the Sikhs killed in 2004, and of course much delay in registering cases of persecution. The issue has figured in Amnesty reports, the US Government’s annual reports on International religious Freedom, and reports of NGOs.
As part of our larger advocacy exercise, we have kept the global village aware of what is happening to our community here, and in other countries too. India is a signatory to international Treaties and Resolutions on Human Rights, Freedom of faith and similar civilisation value documents. We hope international peer pressure will force the Government of India to take action and meet its Treaty obligations. India’s Human Rights record is up for review in April 2008 in the United Nations Human Rights Council, which replaces the old UN Human Rights Commission. This is a body directly answerable to the UN General Assembly. India eagerly looks forward to a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and I hope the Government will take this opportunity to assure the UN of its honorable intentions in safeguarding full minority rights in the country.
But I wish to make it clear once again that we will never seek any punitive action against India, or sanctions of any kind, that may eventually impact on the poor of the country. We hope to fight and win this battle on our terms, and in utter peace.
QUESTION 7. Is there anything the Christian community in India can do to protect itself from such attacks?
ANSWER: We do not seek anything other than our full and honest rights ads citizens of this great country. It is for those in authority to seek that justice prevails and citizens’ security is safeguarded. That is what Governments are for, that and the fact that they must also ensure economic and development justice. Christians are the worse off in this matter too. And Government has not even bothered to set up an assessment committee such as the Justice Rajinder Sachchar high powered committee that the Prime Minister set up for Muslims.
There are precautions, of course, including prayer and unity amongst all Christians. There is the need to be aware of out rights, and not to be afraid of going to the police and insisting that they register a case if there is violence doe, or threats made. Evangelists need to evolve a new vocabulary. Human rights must be a part of the curricula of every Bible school, every seminary. There is need to dialogue with all groups, and to participate in civil society duties in speaking out for others when they are victimised and targeted. We must stand together with anyone who is victimised. That is the only way to ensure we will not hang separately.
Bowing to pressure, accepting defeat, toadyism and displays of weakness will never assure security. The hierarchy and NGOs with FCRA accounts permissions to protect must recognise this. There can be no dialogue between dead bodies and their killers, or between rapists and their victims. Dialogues take place between peaceful persons. Truce is not peace. Peace without justice can be eventually fatal. And in the short run, it merely ensures servitude and a loss of civil rights. I hope it never happens.
QUESTION 8. For quite some years now, you have boldly spoken out for the Christian community. Have you faced any personal threats or risks as a result?
QUESTION; I am not afraid. Like anyone else, I fear the thought of pain, but I do not fear death. In a lighter vein I may say the material and economic violence against me has been more than the physical. But of course as many a priest and lay activist, I have often been threatened with personal injury. Cyber police and security agencies are investigating a recent threat, to me and some top Congress leaders, which had roots abroad. For some time in the past, the Government had given me armed bodyguards, but mercifully they were removed after a time. They were an embarrassment, and guards have never saved anyone. That is what history shows us. I am protected by the prayers of many.
QUESTION 1. Church in India should thank and congratulate you for your relentless fight on behalf of the Christian community in India. What motivates you?
JOHN DAYAL: Nothing that a human rights and civil society activist does can really compare with the courage, faith and forbearance of the victims, and those who survive persecution, terror, coercion, the physical violence and the humiliation that comes when there is an assault on his God given human dignity, the erosion of the freedoms guaranteed to a citizen by the Constitution of India.
Nothing can, of course, replace a human life lost, or recompense a widow or an orphan. We can pray with them, and in that prayer, find the strength in ourselves, as individuals and as society, to try and see that such tragedy is not repeated, such impunity is not allowed to go unchallenged.
It is perhaps that moment of prayer that sustains me as an activist, now nearing forty years in standing together with many others to say `Stop that tyranny, curb that vicious torch, be shamed of defying laws made by men, and afraid before you defy the law of God’. Activism, at the end of the day, is not a display of courage, or duty, or even love. It is surrender to God’s Will. After that there is no fear. It is the means, and it is an end in itself. I, therefore, seek no one’s gratitude. I do seek understanding, for sometimes one has to go against the grain. And I seek forgiveness, for sometimes what I say or do or write may seem to offend Hierarchy, leaders and others, or embarrass them in their own attempts at peace, reconciliation or negotiations with their tormentors.
QUESTION 2. Recently in a press statement, you had mentioned that roughly four incidents of Christian persecution take place in a week in India. This is shocking, since we had assumed that the plight of Christians in India will improve, once the BJP-led coalition lost power at the centre. Is anti-Christian persecution restricted to the BJP-ruled States in India?
JOHN DAYAL: I studied Physics as a student, and then worked in areas of Operational Research, surveys before becoming what is now called an Investigative Journalist back in the first years of the 1970s. That has taught me the power of data, of number crunching, in proving a point, and of field studies in discovering what others may want to remain hidden. These issues have included drugs and human trafficking, corruption and instances of bigotry and injustice, the forcible sterilizations of the Emergency of 1975-77, and of course the massive and penetrating sabotage of the Indian psyche and of its secular ethos by the Sangh Parivar from when it was just the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh and the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. That is how, leaning on the strong staff of the late Archbishop Alan de Lastic of Delhi, I could publish the first Unofficial White Paper of Violence against Christians in 1998, exposing the massive persecution of Christians across the country. We have sought to be able to publish that document every year since then, and I am happy its data, carefully collected and correlated, is by and large accepted by national and international Human Rights and Freedom of Faith institutions and organisations. It is in analysing such data that we find that even in 2007, there are almost 200 cases in 11 months – the year is yet to end, and these are but recorded and reported cases. Maybe there are hundreds of other cases which have not come to my notice.
Careful analysis shows persecution to be a complex criminal phenomenon. It involves massive hate campaigns. It involves vicious political forces and week Governments. Above all it implies slice, complicity or impunity of Government agencies such as police, civil administration and subordinate judiciary. Government is deaf and blind to hate campaigns, whether it is congress which is ruling or the BJP which is in power alone or in collation. The police will not register complaints. The civil administration will gleefully coerce schools, pressurise priests, abet religious fundamentalists, and often accompany mobs as they assault Christians. They ill not arrest culprits, nor will they convict guilty or award them just punishment. No wonder fundamentalists and mobs are encouraged. Media perceptions and unconcern aggravate matters.
Surely the religious fundamentalism and the criminal concept of nationalism that the Sangh Parivar espouses make persecution quite the norm in states ruled by them. The Sangh also penetrates the police, administration and local judiciary, and that means the entire system is loaded against the weaker elements of the minority communities, especially against Christians.
Sometimes, as in Himachal and other areas, the local Congress leadership seems to be in completion with the Sangh Parivar in appeasing the majority. Himachal hardly has any Christians, and neither does Rajasthan, but both states have laws designed to curb conversions! Mrs. Sonia Gandhi once responded to me to assure her Party, the Congress, opposed such laws, but apparently the Himachal chief minister does not care for what his political leader feels and says. His eye is always on the next election. We can challenge the Sangh, but when secular groups such as the Congress and the Left for political reasons actively or by default join forces against Christians, it really saddens me. Then I almost feel helpless.
3. Apart from the vicious campaign by the Sangh Parivar, are there other factors that contribute to anti-Christian violence?
There is what I call the Ravi Shankar-Niyogi Syndrome. You will recall the rule of Pandit Ravi Shankar, a Congressman but an arch Hindutva protagonist who was Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. He defied Jawaharlal Nehru, ignored his caution, and appointed Justice Niyogi to head a farcical commission designed to indict the Church for fraudulently and forcible conversions especially of tribals. That report mothered the anti conversion laws in many states.
That explains it all. The persecution is not a legitimate, if violent, response to Christian spiritual violence -- if you so want to describe evangelistic activity in urban, rural and tribal areas. The laws, which include the Presidential Order of 1950 which deprives Christian Dalits of their development rights, and the social and political perceptions, are designed to keep a vast population of the Dalits and the poor in the thrall and slavery of a few from the traditional social elite. There is virtually no persecution in areas which also do not also have harsh caste distinctions and Dalit or Tribal persecution. It is a one-on-one match! Political groups either encourage or condone persecution of Christians for political reasons.
QUESTION 4. Have national bodies like National Integration Council, of which you are a member, and the National Minorities Commission done anything to stop this?
ANSWER: The National Commission for Human rights does not look at religious persecution, leaving it to the national Minorities commission. Even otherwise I have problems with the NHRC whose focus is essentially on police and jails and torture, and that too not always honestly. It is little more than lip service. I recall at least one former Chief Justice of India who became NHRC chairman was strong supporter of the black law called POTA, used mostly against Muslims.
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes had, till Dr Buta Singh became its chairman, adopted a very hostile attitude towards Dalit Christians - whether the chair was a Congress person or a Bharatiya Janata Party ideologue and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh stalwart.
The National Commission for Minorities, barring the brief interlude when Dr James Massey, a Dalit, was the Christian member, has almost always had time servers or political appointees whose interests were anything but relating to the community. Some have been hostile to the community, some have been corrupt, and some have been retired politicians or bureaucrats whose ignorance has been exceeded only by their unconcern.
One went to the extent of saying he saw no persecution, because he had never been persecuted. Another was keen to bring the community to its knees before the RSS in the guise of a dialogue. Little wonder, therefore, that when the Union Cabinet devised the so called Communal Violence prevention Bill, it just did not cover the issues of Christians, and hate crimes and persecution of the micro minority. The Muslims, after their Gujarat pogrom experience, and Sikhs with the 2004 massacres, rightly rejected the CV Bill out of hand because it strengthened the hands of the police without helping the victims of communal violence. The CV prevention Bill did not even understand the persecution of Christians in various parts of India, or the massive hate campaign against the community carried out in tribal belts, villages and even in cities. Sad to say, in the many seminars organised by Civil Society and by Muslim groups and intellectuals, there were hardly any Christians present and almost no formal representation by Catholic and Protestant hierarchies.
QUESTION 5. Do you think individuals like the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and Sonia Gandhi are fully aware of this continuing harassment of Christians in India?
ANSWER: I am sure they are aware. It is not just the many memorandums the community has submitted to them in the last four years. Governors of many states have repeatedly written to the President and through him to the Home Minister. The Police Intelligence must have told them too. But I expect little of political figures.
QUESTION. Are human rights organisations outside India aware of this situation?
ANSWER: Every Human Rights group in India and abroad worth its salt is fully aware of the situation. Firstly, it is not just persecution of Christians. There is persecution of Muslims. There are issues of delayed justice for the Gujarat massacre victims, for the widows of the Sikhs killed in 2004, and of course much delay in registering cases of persecution. The issue has figured in Amnesty reports, the US Government’s annual reports on International religious Freedom, and reports of NGOs.
As part of our larger advocacy exercise, we have kept the global village aware of what is happening to our community here, and in other countries too. India is a signatory to international Treaties and Resolutions on Human Rights, Freedom of faith and similar civilisation value documents. We hope international peer pressure will force the Government of India to take action and meet its Treaty obligations. India’s Human Rights record is up for review in April 2008 in the United Nations Human Rights Council, which replaces the old UN Human Rights Commission. This is a body directly answerable to the UN General Assembly. India eagerly looks forward to a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and I hope the Government will take this opportunity to assure the UN of its honorable intentions in safeguarding full minority rights in the country.
But I wish to make it clear once again that we will never seek any punitive action against India, or sanctions of any kind, that may eventually impact on the poor of the country. We hope to fight and win this battle on our terms, and in utter peace.
QUESTION 7. Is there anything the Christian community in India can do to protect itself from such attacks?
ANSWER: We do not seek anything other than our full and honest rights ads citizens of this great country. It is for those in authority to seek that justice prevails and citizens’ security is safeguarded. That is what Governments are for, that and the fact that they must also ensure economic and development justice. Christians are the worse off in this matter too. And Government has not even bothered to set up an assessment committee such as the Justice Rajinder Sachchar high powered committee that the Prime Minister set up for Muslims.
There are precautions, of course, including prayer and unity amongst all Christians. There is the need to be aware of out rights, and not to be afraid of going to the police and insisting that they register a case if there is violence doe, or threats made. Evangelists need to evolve a new vocabulary. Human rights must be a part of the curricula of every Bible school, every seminary. There is need to dialogue with all groups, and to participate in civil society duties in speaking out for others when they are victimised and targeted. We must stand together with anyone who is victimised. That is the only way to ensure we will not hang separately.
Bowing to pressure, accepting defeat, toadyism and displays of weakness will never assure security. The hierarchy and NGOs with FCRA accounts permissions to protect must recognise this. There can be no dialogue between dead bodies and their killers, or between rapists and their victims. Dialogues take place between peaceful persons. Truce is not peace. Peace without justice can be eventually fatal. And in the short run, it merely ensures servitude and a loss of civil rights. I hope it never happens.
QUESTION 8. For quite some years now, you have boldly spoken out for the Christian community. Have you faced any personal threats or risks as a result?
QUESTION; I am not afraid. Like anyone else, I fear the thought of pain, but I do not fear death. In a lighter vein I may say the material and economic violence against me has been more than the physical. But of course as many a priest and lay activist, I have often been threatened with personal injury. Cyber police and security agencies are investigating a recent threat, to me and some top Congress leaders, which had roots abroad. For some time in the past, the Government had given me armed bodyguards, but mercifully they were removed after a time. They were an embarrassment, and guards have never saved anyone. That is what history shows us. I am protected by the prayers of many.
Monday, January 28, 2008
INDIA’S RELIGIOUS MINORITIES AND THE UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW OF INDIA’S HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD BY THE UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM
INDIA’S RELIGIOUS MINORITIES AND THE UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW OF INDIA’S HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD BY THE UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM
Urgent communiqué from Dr John Dayal, All India Catholic Union, All India Christian Council and the United Christian Forum, New Delhi
January 28, 2008-01-29
Dear Friends
I am sending you a crucial segment of the note that the Indian National Human Rights Commission is reportedly preparing for the Universal Periodic Review of India – and some other countries -- by the United Nations Human Rights Council in April this year.
As far as religious minorities and Dalits go, the record of the NHRC is arguably at par with that of the various National Commissions for Minorities, Scheduled castes and Tribes [the last two were once a single entity and are now split into two]. These organisations have seldom been able to function other than as loyal entities of the Government of the day and its political agenda when it comes to Muslims and Christians, though their record on more general – and larger -- issues such as Police reforms, Torture, Hunger and Poverty is better. This was seen at its most raw when the Bharatiya Janata Party was ruling in the garb of the National Democratic Alliance, and which is still so very visible in State governments ruled by the BJP or its allies, and occasionally even by those where the Congress and others are in power. Without disparaging Indian civilisation traditions, the same passiveness or comparative unconcern, of course, could also be said of the justice delivery system, the criminal investigation system and of police and civil governance in general.
I am sending this material, which I understand is still in a draft form, so that concerned activists, who would otherwise not have access to the NHRC position, can mobilise themselves to persuade the Commission to take stock of issues of religious persecution, official and political bigotry and connivance, government harassment in cases of visas, FCRA, Hindutva violence and probity of the bureaucracy and political administration, as well as matters of impunity. Our experience in Orissa in December 2007-January 2008, and in other states earlier, shows us just how wide the gap is between ground reality and public positioning.
I hope you will be able to express your views on the actual grass roots non-implementation of enacted legislation and rules, as well as the perversion of other official regulations, to the NHRC as well as to the National Commissions for Minorities, Tribals and Scheduled Castes.. I need hardly point out that the Government and the Commissions have sent Muslim and Christian Dalits first into a merry go round of hope and then into a blind alley sealed by a Supreme Court ceiling of 50 per cent on all reservations in government employment and education systems. Most of us cannot fathom just why everyone believes this arbitrary ceiling is sacrosanct, and the deprivation of minority groups is not. Even between minorities, issues of the Christian community, including economic and political disempowerment, find little or no space.
I also understand that the voices of organisations on Freedom of faith and of those challenging persecution do not really find a commensurate place in this discourse towards the Universal Public Review of India’s record.
God bless
John Dayal
Quotation from the NHRC paper for UPR
“Persons belonging to Scheduled Castes and Tribals:
Persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have suffered historical injustices, and are hurting because of discrimination and inequality. They continue to face alleged acts of discrimination, untouchability, violence against the human person, atrocities of various kinds, and high-handedness by public servants and others. Caste-based discrimination constitutes an unacceptable assault on the dignity and worth of the human person and an egregious violation of human rights.
It was in recognition of this - and to end such injustice - that Part III of the Constitution of our Republic dealing with Fundamental Rights, contained powerful provisions to combat all forms of discrimination, notably those forms which were based on caste. These provisions of the Constitution, which are justiciable, include inter alia, equality before the law or the equal protection of laws, non discrimination against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward class of citizens as well as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, affirmative action through the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately represented in the services of the State and abolition of “Untouchability”.
To give clear expression to Constitutional provisions, an impressive range of legislative measures have been enacted to end discrimination against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. These inter alia include the Protection of Civil Rights (Anti-Untouchability) Act, 1955, the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act, 1976, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and various land reform acts. In accordance with Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules, 1995, the Nodal Officers and Special Cells for Protection of Civil Rights have been appointed in many States/Union Territories. Political representation was guaranteed for Scheduled Castes and Tribes through the proportionate reservation of seats in elected legislative bodies, from Parliament to village councils. To overcome the cumulative results of past discrimination, the government instituted a program of “compensatory discrimination” that reserved 22.5 percent of all central government jobs for members of Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Comparable reservations were provided for state-level employment, and reservations were extended to college and university admissions.
Besides establishing a Focal Point on Scheduled Castes, the National Human Rights Commission made specific recommendations to address atrocities against Scheduled Castes and been has monitoring their implementation at field level.
India has embarked on a programme of affirmative action which is, perhaps, without parallel in scale and dimension in human history. However, it is recognised that much remains to be done to bring to an end the discrimination and inequality that have been practiced for centuries and that this requires both sustained effort and time. It requires change of mindsets. There are inadequacies in implementation which need to be addressed. Legislative and affirmative action programmes are firmly in place, but need to be far better implemented.
The provisions in the Constitution make it incumbent on the State to “take care” of Scheduled Tribes [STs]. In articles 15 and 16 (which refer to fundamental rights of citizens) exceptions are made to ensure that what is needed to be done for STs is done. For example, though equality of opportunity is the policy of the State, an exception is made for reservations. Article 244 enables the State to make special arrangements for development of STs. Article 275-1 enables the State (the central government particularly) to set aside financial provisions to be used for tribal development. If there are any schemes from the state government and the central government approves it then the central government is bound to finance the scheme. So we get all ingredients for the State in terms of the legality and financial arrangements. The State cannot have any excuse that they are not empowered enough. The V schedule is a unique aspect of the Constitution - it empowers the governor of a state to suspend any act of parliament or state legislature if he thinks it is not in the interest of the STs. This he can do even with retrospective effect. A similar aspect is not found anywhere else in the constitution. The VI schedule enables an autonomous district level body to be formed where there is a large percentage of tribal groups. This has been formulated especially for north-eastern region which is unique in many respects. Districts in the northeast can be mini-states - they have a lot of financial, legislative, executive, and judicial power. Education, health care, rural development, social security are all subjects under the State List of Schedule VII to the Constitution, the maturing of our federal systems has prompted the Centre to play an increasing role in these areas
When tribals are displaced by dams and other mega projects, as has happened in some States of the country, they raise important human rights issues. It is necessary to pay heed to the fate of those who pay the price for "development", whether through the undertaking of mega projects or as a result of economic policies that, advertently or otherwise, have the effect of marginalizing the most vulnerable sections of society.
The recognized rights of the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers include the responsibilities and authority for sustainable use, conservation of biodiversity and maintenance of ecological balance and thereby strengthening the conservation regime of the forests while ensuring livelihood and food security of the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers.
The forest rights on ancestral lands and their habitat were not adequately recognized in the consolidation of State forests during the colonial period as well as in independent India resulting in historical injustice to the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who are integral to the very survival and sustainability of the forest ecosystem.
To address the long standing insecurity of tenurial and access rights of forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers including those who were forced to relocate their dwelling due to State development interventions, the Parliament enacted the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. It recognizes and vests the forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded; it also seeks to provide for a framework for recording the forest rights so vested and the nature of evidence required for such recognition and vesting in respect of forest land. This Act received assent of the President on 29th December, 2006. On 1st January 2008, rules were notified for the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.
The National Human Rights Commission intervened in a number of cases involving displacement of tribals. At the policy level, the Commission recommended that the Central and State Governments re-examine and appropriately amend their laws, regulations and practices in order to ensure that, when it comes to acquisition of land for purposes related to national economic development, the provisions of the Constitution, as expounded by the Supreme Court and as contained in international instruments to which India is a party, notably ILO Convention 107, are fully respected. This is essential if the 'national interest' was to be reconciled, as it can and should be, with true respect for the rights of the weakest sections of society.
Minorities:
The first Statutory National Commission for Minorities was set up on 17th May 1993. On 23rd October 1993 five religious communities viz. the Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) were notified as minority communities. As per the 2001 Census, these five religious minority communities constitute 18.42% of the country’s population. Despite the safeguards provided in the Constitution and the laws in force, there are concerns among members belonging to minorities about inequality and discrimination.
In order to address such concerns, the new Ministry of Minority Affairs was set up. The National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities and the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions have also been set up. The Government approved the proposal to grant Constitutional Status to the National Commission for Minorities to infuse greater confidence among the minorities about its working and the effectiveness. The Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for welfare of minorities covers (1) Enhancing opportunities for Education (2) Equitable Share in Economic Activities and Employment, (3). Improving the conditions of living of minorities (4). Prevention & Control of Communal Riots. It was also decided that 15% of the funds may be earmarked wherever possible in relevant schemes / programmes, for the nationally declared minorities. The 15 Point Programme has been recast to focus action sharply on issues intimately linked with the social, educational and economic uplift of minorities and provide for earmarking of outlays in certain schemes so that the progress is monitorable.
The Government approved relief and rehabilitation of victims of communal riots in Gujarat of 2002, on par with the measures taken in respect of victims of anti-Sikh riots of 1984. The Union Cabinet gave its approval for the enactment of Legislation titled “The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2005.” This Bill is aimed at i) Prevention of communal violence / offences; ii) Speedy investigation; and speedy dispensation of justice; iii) Imposition of enhanced punishment on the persons involved in communal violence / offences; iv) Providing relief and rehabilitation facilities to the victims; v) Creating institutional arrangement for speedy investigation, disposal of cases, providing relief and rehabilitation to the victims. vi) Empowering the States / Central authorities to discharge their duties in assisting victims in the matter.
As there was lack of authentic information about the social, economic, and educational status of the Muslim community of India, a High Level Committee was constituted on 9th March, 2005 under the Chairmanship of Justice Rajinder Sachar to prepare a comprehensive report on this subject. After extensive consultations, the High Level Committee submitted its report on 17th November, 2006. The report made recommendations with regard to education, skill development, employment and economic opportunities, poverty and development and social conditions of Muslims. The Sachar Report on Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India has produced a compendium of authentic information required by the Government for planning, formulating and implementing specific interventions, policies and programmes to address issues relating to the backwardness of the community. As a follow up action to the Sachar Committee Report, the Government proposes, among others, to take the following actions:
It has been decided in principle to set up an Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) to look into grievances regarding discrimination. An expert group will study and recommend its (EOC’s) structure and functions.
In order to promote diversity and social inclusion in educational institutions, work places and living spaces, an expert group has been constituted to propose an appropriate “diversity index”. Such an index can be the basis for providing incentives for better representation in all three areas mentioned above.
A National Data Bank (NDB) and an autonomous Assessment and Monitoring Authority (AMA) will be soon set up which will analyse the data so generated and suggest appropriate policies to Government on a continuous basis.
END OF QUOTATION
Urgent communiqué from Dr John Dayal, All India Catholic Union, All India Christian Council and the United Christian Forum, New Delhi
January 28, 2008-01-29
Dear Friends
I am sending you a crucial segment of the note that the Indian National Human Rights Commission is reportedly preparing for the Universal Periodic Review of India – and some other countries -- by the United Nations Human Rights Council in April this year.
As far as religious minorities and Dalits go, the record of the NHRC is arguably at par with that of the various National Commissions for Minorities, Scheduled castes and Tribes [the last two were once a single entity and are now split into two]. These organisations have seldom been able to function other than as loyal entities of the Government of the day and its political agenda when it comes to Muslims and Christians, though their record on more general – and larger -- issues such as Police reforms, Torture, Hunger and Poverty is better. This was seen at its most raw when the Bharatiya Janata Party was ruling in the garb of the National Democratic Alliance, and which is still so very visible in State governments ruled by the BJP or its allies, and occasionally even by those where the Congress and others are in power. Without disparaging Indian civilisation traditions, the same passiveness or comparative unconcern, of course, could also be said of the justice delivery system, the criminal investigation system and of police and civil governance in general.
I am sending this material, which I understand is still in a draft form, so that concerned activists, who would otherwise not have access to the NHRC position, can mobilise themselves to persuade the Commission to take stock of issues of religious persecution, official and political bigotry and connivance, government harassment in cases of visas, FCRA, Hindutva violence and probity of the bureaucracy and political administration, as well as matters of impunity. Our experience in Orissa in December 2007-January 2008, and in other states earlier, shows us just how wide the gap is between ground reality and public positioning.
I hope you will be able to express your views on the actual grass roots non-implementation of enacted legislation and rules, as well as the perversion of other official regulations, to the NHRC as well as to the National Commissions for Minorities, Tribals and Scheduled Castes.. I need hardly point out that the Government and the Commissions have sent Muslim and Christian Dalits first into a merry go round of hope and then into a blind alley sealed by a Supreme Court ceiling of 50 per cent on all reservations in government employment and education systems. Most of us cannot fathom just why everyone believes this arbitrary ceiling is sacrosanct, and the deprivation of minority groups is not. Even between minorities, issues of the Christian community, including economic and political disempowerment, find little or no space.
I also understand that the voices of organisations on Freedom of faith and of those challenging persecution do not really find a commensurate place in this discourse towards the Universal Public Review of India’s record.
God bless
John Dayal
Quotation from the NHRC paper for UPR
“Persons belonging to Scheduled Castes and Tribals:
Persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have suffered historical injustices, and are hurting because of discrimination and inequality. They continue to face alleged acts of discrimination, untouchability, violence against the human person, atrocities of various kinds, and high-handedness by public servants and others. Caste-based discrimination constitutes an unacceptable assault on the dignity and worth of the human person and an egregious violation of human rights.
It was in recognition of this - and to end such injustice - that Part III of the Constitution of our Republic dealing with Fundamental Rights, contained powerful provisions to combat all forms of discrimination, notably those forms which were based on caste. These provisions of the Constitution, which are justiciable, include inter alia, equality before the law or the equal protection of laws, non discrimination against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward class of citizens as well as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, affirmative action through the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately represented in the services of the State and abolition of “Untouchability”.
To give clear expression to Constitutional provisions, an impressive range of legislative measures have been enacted to end discrimination against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. These inter alia include the Protection of Civil Rights (Anti-Untouchability) Act, 1955, the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act, 1976, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and various land reform acts. In accordance with Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules, 1995, the Nodal Officers and Special Cells for Protection of Civil Rights have been appointed in many States/Union Territories. Political representation was guaranteed for Scheduled Castes and Tribes through the proportionate reservation of seats in elected legislative bodies, from Parliament to village councils. To overcome the cumulative results of past discrimination, the government instituted a program of “compensatory discrimination” that reserved 22.5 percent of all central government jobs for members of Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Comparable reservations were provided for state-level employment, and reservations were extended to college and university admissions.
Besides establishing a Focal Point on Scheduled Castes, the National Human Rights Commission made specific recommendations to address atrocities against Scheduled Castes and been has monitoring their implementation at field level.
India has embarked on a programme of affirmative action which is, perhaps, without parallel in scale and dimension in human history. However, it is recognised that much remains to be done to bring to an end the discrimination and inequality that have been practiced for centuries and that this requires both sustained effort and time. It requires change of mindsets. There are inadequacies in implementation which need to be addressed. Legislative and affirmative action programmes are firmly in place, but need to be far better implemented.
The provisions in the Constitution make it incumbent on the State to “take care” of Scheduled Tribes [STs]. In articles 15 and 16 (which refer to fundamental rights of citizens) exceptions are made to ensure that what is needed to be done for STs is done. For example, though equality of opportunity is the policy of the State, an exception is made for reservations. Article 244 enables the State to make special arrangements for development of STs. Article 275-1 enables the State (the central government particularly) to set aside financial provisions to be used for tribal development. If there are any schemes from the state government and the central government approves it then the central government is bound to finance the scheme. So we get all ingredients for the State in terms of the legality and financial arrangements. The State cannot have any excuse that they are not empowered enough. The V schedule is a unique aspect of the Constitution - it empowers the governor of a state to suspend any act of parliament or state legislature if he thinks it is not in the interest of the STs. This he can do even with retrospective effect. A similar aspect is not found anywhere else in the constitution. The VI schedule enables an autonomous district level body to be formed where there is a large percentage of tribal groups. This has been formulated especially for north-eastern region which is unique in many respects. Districts in the northeast can be mini-states - they have a lot of financial, legislative, executive, and judicial power. Education, health care, rural development, social security are all subjects under the State List of Schedule VII to the Constitution, the maturing of our federal systems has prompted the Centre to play an increasing role in these areas
When tribals are displaced by dams and other mega projects, as has happened in some States of the country, they raise important human rights issues. It is necessary to pay heed to the fate of those who pay the price for "development", whether through the undertaking of mega projects or as a result of economic policies that, advertently or otherwise, have the effect of marginalizing the most vulnerable sections of society.
The recognized rights of the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers include the responsibilities and authority for sustainable use, conservation of biodiversity and maintenance of ecological balance and thereby strengthening the conservation regime of the forests while ensuring livelihood and food security of the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers.
The forest rights on ancestral lands and their habitat were not adequately recognized in the consolidation of State forests during the colonial period as well as in independent India resulting in historical injustice to the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who are integral to the very survival and sustainability of the forest ecosystem.
To address the long standing insecurity of tenurial and access rights of forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers including those who were forced to relocate their dwelling due to State development interventions, the Parliament enacted the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. It recognizes and vests the forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded; it also seeks to provide for a framework for recording the forest rights so vested and the nature of evidence required for such recognition and vesting in respect of forest land. This Act received assent of the President on 29th December, 2006. On 1st January 2008, rules were notified for the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.
The National Human Rights Commission intervened in a number of cases involving displacement of tribals. At the policy level, the Commission recommended that the Central and State Governments re-examine and appropriately amend their laws, regulations and practices in order to ensure that, when it comes to acquisition of land for purposes related to national economic development, the provisions of the Constitution, as expounded by the Supreme Court and as contained in international instruments to which India is a party, notably ILO Convention 107, are fully respected. This is essential if the 'national interest' was to be reconciled, as it can and should be, with true respect for the rights of the weakest sections of society.
Minorities:
The first Statutory National Commission for Minorities was set up on 17th May 1993. On 23rd October 1993 five religious communities viz. the Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) were notified as minority communities. As per the 2001 Census, these five religious minority communities constitute 18.42% of the country’s population. Despite the safeguards provided in the Constitution and the laws in force, there are concerns among members belonging to minorities about inequality and discrimination.
In order to address such concerns, the new Ministry of Minority Affairs was set up. The National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities and the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions have also been set up. The Government approved the proposal to grant Constitutional Status to the National Commission for Minorities to infuse greater confidence among the minorities about its working and the effectiveness. The Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for welfare of minorities covers (1) Enhancing opportunities for Education (2) Equitable Share in Economic Activities and Employment, (3). Improving the conditions of living of minorities (4). Prevention & Control of Communal Riots. It was also decided that 15% of the funds may be earmarked wherever possible in relevant schemes / programmes, for the nationally declared minorities. The 15 Point Programme has been recast to focus action sharply on issues intimately linked with the social, educational and economic uplift of minorities and provide for earmarking of outlays in certain schemes so that the progress is monitorable.
The Government approved relief and rehabilitation of victims of communal riots in Gujarat of 2002, on par with the measures taken in respect of victims of anti-Sikh riots of 1984. The Union Cabinet gave its approval for the enactment of Legislation titled “The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2005.” This Bill is aimed at i) Prevention of communal violence / offences; ii) Speedy investigation; and speedy dispensation of justice; iii) Imposition of enhanced punishment on the persons involved in communal violence / offences; iv) Providing relief and rehabilitation facilities to the victims; v) Creating institutional arrangement for speedy investigation, disposal of cases, providing relief and rehabilitation to the victims. vi) Empowering the States / Central authorities to discharge their duties in assisting victims in the matter.
As there was lack of authentic information about the social, economic, and educational status of the Muslim community of India, a High Level Committee was constituted on 9th March, 2005 under the Chairmanship of Justice Rajinder Sachar to prepare a comprehensive report on this subject. After extensive consultations, the High Level Committee submitted its report on 17th November, 2006. The report made recommendations with regard to education, skill development, employment and economic opportunities, poverty and development and social conditions of Muslims. The Sachar Report on Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India has produced a compendium of authentic information required by the Government for planning, formulating and implementing specific interventions, policies and programmes to address issues relating to the backwardness of the community. As a follow up action to the Sachar Committee Report, the Government proposes, among others, to take the following actions:
It has been decided in principle to set up an Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) to look into grievances regarding discrimination. An expert group will study and recommend its (EOC’s) structure and functions.
In order to promote diversity and social inclusion in educational institutions, work places and living spaces, an expert group has been constituted to propose an appropriate “diversity index”. Such an index can be the basis for providing incentives for better representation in all three areas mentioned above.
A National Data Bank (NDB) and an autonomous Assessment and Monitoring Authority (AMA) will be soon set up which will analyse the data so generated and suggest appropriate policies to Government on a continuous basis.
END OF QUOTATION
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Justice delayed for Dalit Christians
Buta Sigh, Government, and Court delays frustrate justice for Dalit Christians
From John Dayal
New Delhi, 23 January 2008
An estimated twenty million Christians whose ancestors converted from the once untouchable castes of medieval India were today left confused if justice for them lay in the courts of law, the Parliament, or just in prayer.
The Indian government at last admitted in the Supreme Court today that various official commissions had indeed recommended that such Dalit Christians [and Muslims] get the same civic rights that are given to Dalit converts to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism without hurting the interests of those communities.
But the Government however still refused to disclose if it was accepting the recommendations of panels headed by former Chief Justice of India Rangnath Misra and National Scheduled Caste Commission chairman Dr Buta Singh, a former Union Cabinet minister and once governor of the state of Bihar. It sought, and was given, eight weeks to come once again before the Court with its response.
Additional Solicitor general of India Gopal Subramaniam presented before a three-judge bench of the Supreme court, headed by chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan, the letter of Dr Buta Singh which said: “The National Commission for Schedule Castes, New Delhi at its meeting held on 18.9.2007 while framing its views on recommendations contained in the report of the National Commission for Religious and linguistic minorities (NCRLM) and The Prime Ministers high level committee – social, economic and educational status of the Muslim Community of the India, concerning specification of Scheduled Caste convents to Christianity and Islam has decided the “Reservation should be extended to them, but the share of 15 per cent of Scheduled Castes should not be disturbed and the element of reservation for these communities (Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians should be determined by the Government keeping in view of their population. As per the direction of the Supreme Court, the overall reservation of 50 percent has to be maintained ’’. Accordingly a communication has been made to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt. of India for further necessary action.”
Mr. Subramaniam, the senior law officer of the government, requested the Chief Justice to give the government time for to make up its mind on the But Singh recommendations. The bench, which also included Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice J.M. Panchal, agreed, despite a spirited challenge by a battery of lawyers appearing for the Christians, including former Law Minister Ram Jethmalani and Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan.
These recommendations by Dr Buta Singh and Justice Misra may call for not an administrative decision as much as a major political position which Congress governments have fought shy of since the then President, Dr Rajendra Prasad – a senior Congressman -- signed a controversial order in 1950 – the year the Constitution of Independent India was signed into law – under pressure from orthodox Hindu political leaders.
That Presidential order effectively made the former untouchable castes to lose all affirmative action privileges such as priority in employment and education if they opted for any religion other than Hinduism. Though this went against India’s secular declarations, the Presidential order was legislated into caste iron law which has been upheld by various courts, including the Supreme Court till a recent challenge in public interest litigation.
The recent legal challenge draws strength from government decisions giving rights of preferential employment and education to Dalits professing the Buddhist and Sikh religions, faiths which, like Islam and Christianity, do not discriminate on grounds of untouchability but whose followers do face real social marginalisation in India’s still morbidly caste-ridden society. Christians and Muslims also face such social infirmity. In several states, Dalits of all faiths carry out the most menial of tasks, including manual scavenging and are amongst the poorest of the poor, living on the margins of villages, doomed to draw water from separate wells and enied any semblance of social equality. It was only late in the twentieth century that many Dalit Christians in several districts could bury their dead in common cemeteries and share church pews with converts from the upper castes. Government studies have shown that remnants of such ostracisation still persist across religious groups,
Dr Buta Singh’s report puts the government in a quandary. It must either challenge the Supreme Court’s entirely arbitrary ceiling of 50 per cent on all reservations for India’s many deprived and depressed communities which go under labels such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other backward Communities and Most Backward communities, or come to Parliament for new laws to devise other creative categories that circumvent the legal limitations.
It may run foul of an increasingly aggressive resistance from India’s upper castes as also from rapidly Hinduised but still very underprivileged communities who feel threatened by any demand, especially from religious minorities, which may seem to cut into the limited cake of government jobs and seats in medical and engineering colleges.
Christians hardly constitute a powerful political block to attract government largesse, and Muslims, who are politically important, face opposition from the Sangh Parivar and a section of the ruling Congress party.
Religious minorities are looking towards a test case in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh where the government, also ruled by the Congress party, wants to help out the very large concentration of Muslim population in the province which constituted a potent vote bank.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court has indicated – going by news agency reports – that it will constitute a seven-member Constitution bench to hear a batch of writ petitions filed in support of and against the four per cent reservations to backward groups among Muslim. Backward communities are not in the same category as Shielded castes, but any legal debate on this segment will cast its shadow on the discourse on rights for Dalit Muslims and Christians, and will boost morale of community leaders. Religious minorities listed as backward communities do get economic, employment and education benefits in several states.
A larger bench of the High Court comprising Justice Meena Kumari, Justice B. Prakash Rao, Justice D.S.R. Varma, Justice A. Gopal Reddy and Justice V. Eswaraiah, is presently hearing the batch of petitions relating to the reservation issue. This bench has indicated it may refer the case to a seven-member constitution bench. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted the government two weeks' time to take a stand on the quotas in state jobs and educational institutions for Dalits among Muslims and Christians.
A very frustrated leadership of the Dalit Christians has held many demonstrations in New Delhi while their appeal has repeatedly been adjourned in the Supreme Court over much of last year.
Dalit Christians are concentrated in parts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, as also in some districts of Punjab, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. But it is only in Andhra and Tamil Nadu that are of political significance. The state governments and several regional parties have extended their support to the Dalit Christiana and Muslims. However, the powerful Bharatiya Janata Party, a significant segment of the Congress party, are aggressively opposed to any concessions to Christians and Muslim Dalits.
From John Dayal
New Delhi, 23 January 2008
An estimated twenty million Christians whose ancestors converted from the once untouchable castes of medieval India were today left confused if justice for them lay in the courts of law, the Parliament, or just in prayer.
The Indian government at last admitted in the Supreme Court today that various official commissions had indeed recommended that such Dalit Christians [and Muslims] get the same civic rights that are given to Dalit converts to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism without hurting the interests of those communities.
But the Government however still refused to disclose if it was accepting the recommendations of panels headed by former Chief Justice of India Rangnath Misra and National Scheduled Caste Commission chairman Dr Buta Singh, a former Union Cabinet minister and once governor of the state of Bihar. It sought, and was given, eight weeks to come once again before the Court with its response.
Additional Solicitor general of India Gopal Subramaniam presented before a three-judge bench of the Supreme court, headed by chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan, the letter of Dr Buta Singh which said: “The National Commission for Schedule Castes, New Delhi at its meeting held on 18.9.2007 while framing its views on recommendations contained in the report of the National Commission for Religious and linguistic minorities (NCRLM) and The Prime Ministers high level committee – social, economic and educational status of the Muslim Community of the India, concerning specification of Scheduled Caste convents to Christianity and Islam has decided the “Reservation should be extended to them, but the share of 15 per cent of Scheduled Castes should not be disturbed and the element of reservation for these communities (Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians should be determined by the Government keeping in view of their population. As per the direction of the Supreme Court, the overall reservation of 50 percent has to be maintained ’’. Accordingly a communication has been made to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt. of India for further necessary action.”
Mr. Subramaniam, the senior law officer of the government, requested the Chief Justice to give the government time for to make up its mind on the But Singh recommendations. The bench, which also included Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice J.M. Panchal, agreed, despite a spirited challenge by a battery of lawyers appearing for the Christians, including former Law Minister Ram Jethmalani and Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan.
These recommendations by Dr Buta Singh and Justice Misra may call for not an administrative decision as much as a major political position which Congress governments have fought shy of since the then President, Dr Rajendra Prasad – a senior Congressman -- signed a controversial order in 1950 – the year the Constitution of Independent India was signed into law – under pressure from orthodox Hindu political leaders.
That Presidential order effectively made the former untouchable castes to lose all affirmative action privileges such as priority in employment and education if they opted for any religion other than Hinduism. Though this went against India’s secular declarations, the Presidential order was legislated into caste iron law which has been upheld by various courts, including the Supreme Court till a recent challenge in public interest litigation.
The recent legal challenge draws strength from government decisions giving rights of preferential employment and education to Dalits professing the Buddhist and Sikh religions, faiths which, like Islam and Christianity, do not discriminate on grounds of untouchability but whose followers do face real social marginalisation in India’s still morbidly caste-ridden society. Christians and Muslims also face such social infirmity. In several states, Dalits of all faiths carry out the most menial of tasks, including manual scavenging and are amongst the poorest of the poor, living on the margins of villages, doomed to draw water from separate wells and enied any semblance of social equality. It was only late in the twentieth century that many Dalit Christians in several districts could bury their dead in common cemeteries and share church pews with converts from the upper castes. Government studies have shown that remnants of such ostracisation still persist across religious groups,
Dr Buta Singh’s report puts the government in a quandary. It must either challenge the Supreme Court’s entirely arbitrary ceiling of 50 per cent on all reservations for India’s many deprived and depressed communities which go under labels such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other backward Communities and Most Backward communities, or come to Parliament for new laws to devise other creative categories that circumvent the legal limitations.
It may run foul of an increasingly aggressive resistance from India’s upper castes as also from rapidly Hinduised but still very underprivileged communities who feel threatened by any demand, especially from religious minorities, which may seem to cut into the limited cake of government jobs and seats in medical and engineering colleges.
Christians hardly constitute a powerful political block to attract government largesse, and Muslims, who are politically important, face opposition from the Sangh Parivar and a section of the ruling Congress party.
Religious minorities are looking towards a test case in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh where the government, also ruled by the Congress party, wants to help out the very large concentration of Muslim population in the province which constituted a potent vote bank.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court has indicated – going by news agency reports – that it will constitute a seven-member Constitution bench to hear a batch of writ petitions filed in support of and against the four per cent reservations to backward groups among Muslim. Backward communities are not in the same category as Shielded castes, but any legal debate on this segment will cast its shadow on the discourse on rights for Dalit Muslims and Christians, and will boost morale of community leaders. Religious minorities listed as backward communities do get economic, employment and education benefits in several states.
A larger bench of the High Court comprising Justice Meena Kumari, Justice B. Prakash Rao, Justice D.S.R. Varma, Justice A. Gopal Reddy and Justice V. Eswaraiah, is presently hearing the batch of petitions relating to the reservation issue. This bench has indicated it may refer the case to a seven-member constitution bench. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted the government two weeks' time to take a stand on the quotas in state jobs and educational institutions for Dalits among Muslims and Christians.
A very frustrated leadership of the Dalit Christians has held many demonstrations in New Delhi while their appeal has repeatedly been adjourned in the Supreme Court over much of last year.
Dalit Christians are concentrated in parts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, as also in some districts of Punjab, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. But it is only in Andhra and Tamil Nadu that are of political significance. The state governments and several regional parties have extended their support to the Dalit Christiana and Muslims. However, the powerful Bharatiya Janata Party, a significant segment of the Congress party, are aggressively opposed to any concessions to Christians and Muslim Dalits.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Autonomous body mus probe communal violence
Retired judges say Indian minorities should not feel insecure
<http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C01%5C20%5Cstory_20-1-2008_pg7_43>
Christian leader says civil society looked away while Christians were being attacked in Orissa
Retired police officer says police have become party to communal riots
By Iftikhar Gilani
NEW DELHI: Two former chief justices of India on Saturday called for removing the sense of insecurity in minorities, equal opportunity, and speedy trials in communal riot cases. Former chief justice of India, Justice (r) AM Ahmadi said a sense of insecurity in any section of the society could jeopardise the peace, prosperity, and stability of a country. “It is time to create an environment in which people can live without fear,” he told a seminar organised by the Institute of Objective Studies (IOS). Referring to the attacks on Christians and their churches and hostels in Orissa, Justice Ahmadi said minorities were being marginalised and their voices silenced by instilling fear and insecurity.
Another former chief justice, Justice (r) VN Khare, called for an autonomous body to look into cases of communal flare-up and prosecute offenders of communal riots. “A de facto doctrine of equality should be given to minorities,” he said.
Looked away: John Dayal, president of All India Catholic Union, was dissatisfied with the civil society’s response to communal flare-ups. He said the civil society “looked away” when Christians were being attacked and raped in Orissa.
Police now a party: Former senior police officer Chaman Lal said communalism was no longer an urban phenomenon, but also existed rural areas. Police had earlier been accused of inaction, he said, but had now become a party to communal riots. He said the secular fabric of India was under threat. “Security of the state and human rights can be assured if police take their duty seriously,” he stated.
A resolution passed at the end of the seminar underscored legal literacy in and accountability of administrative and law enforcement agencies by incorporating the principle of command responsibility.
-----------------------
The Hindu, New Delhi
Date: 20/01/2008
URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/20/stories/2008012057040800.htm
‘An autonomous body needed to probe communal riots’
New Delhi: Favouring the creation of an autonomous body to look into cases of communal flare ups and prosecute offenders, former Chief Justice of India V.N. Khare expressed concern over growing insecurity among minorities in the light of attacks on churches in Orissa. He said there should be an autonomous body to look into cases of communal riots. “De facto doctrine of equality should be given to minorities,” he said.
Speaking at a discussion on “Issues of Insecurity of Minorities and Efficacy of Law”, organised by the Institute of Objective Studies here on Saturday, Justice Khare said the first duty of a democratic State was to protect minorities.
Endeavour
Justice A.M. Ahmadi, former Chief Justice of India, said there was an endeavour on the part of certain groups to sow the seeds of insecurity in minorities. Referring to the attacks on Christians and churches in Orissa, Justice Ahmadi said, minorities were being marginalised and their voices silenced by instilling in them a sense of insecurity. “The culture of impunity is growing,” he said, according to a communiqué from the Institute.
John Dayal, President All India Catholic Union, alleged civil society was dead in Orissa. Christians were brutally beaten up, their prayer halls, hostels and other properties were put on fire, but the state machinery was a “mute spectator”. - PTI
© Copyright 2000 - 2008 The Hindu
---------------
Press Release
New Delhi, Jan. 19: A sense of insecurity in any section of society has the capability to jeopardise peace, prosperity and stability of a country. It is time to create an environment in which people could live without fear. This was the view of speakers of a discussion on “Issues of Insecurity of Minorities and Efficacy of Law” here at India International Centre. The programme was organised by Institute of Objective Studies. The participants also discussed as to how to make the law more efficient.
Presiding over the discussion Justice A.M. Ahmad, former Chief Justice of India, said there was an endeavour on the part of certain groups to sow the seed of insecurity in minorities. Referring to the attacks on Christians and their churches and hostels in Orissa, Justice Ahmadi said, minorities were being marginalised and their voices silenced by instilling in them a sense of insecurity. “The culture of impunity is growing.”
Former Chief Justice of India Justice V.N. Khare, who was the chief guest, emphatically said first duty of a democratic state was to protect minorities. Justice Khare said there should be an autonomous body to look into a case of communal flare-up and prosecute offenders of communal riots. “De facto doctrine of equality should be given to minorities,” he averred.
Dr John Dayal, President All India Catholic Union and Secretary General, All India Christian Council, narrating his experiences in the State, said civil society was dead in Orissa. Christians were brutally beaten up; their prayer halls, hostels and other properties were put on fire. But the state machinery was a mute spectator.
Justice Rajender Sachar, Prof. Iqbal A. Ansari, Mr. Chaman Lal, Mr. Yousuf Hatim Muchchala, Father Dominic Emmanuel, Dr Abusaleh Shariff also spoke on the topic.
At the end of the deliberations, the following resolution was adopted:
The Central Government should take measures to develop a culture of courage and enable the civil society to meet the threat posed by the Hindutva elements; human Rights regime in the country should be put in its right place through legal literacy and accountability of administrative and enforcement agencies incorporating the principle of command responsibility. The case of Bilkis Bano’s case (transferred from Gujarat to Maharashtra pursuant to Supreme Court’s directions) proves the point that a lay citizen takes courage to vindicate her human rights, justice is meted out; Insecurity has taken all minorities into its grip and measures for controlling violence are required to be extended to all sensitive localities and regions. Insults are heaped on Christians and Churches and destroyed in Orissa with impunity and their properties and lives are destroyed; hate campaigns having become a regular feature of certain groups to meet their political ends, there should be zero tolerance towards such dangerous activities by the authorities and appropriate legislation be enacted making authorities liable for their non-action in such matters.
It also demanded that measures like observance of administrative ethics and accountability to minorities should be effectively used to prevent communal violence and loss of life and property of the members of minority communities.
It mooted a people’s movement aligning all disadvantaged groups to be launched, making it incumbent on the civil society to come forward and play its role in curbing growth of hate and intolerance deliberately encouraged by some vested interests. In this connection, it was also deemed necessary that the corporate world should discharge its social responsibility towards disadvantaged groups of people and come forward with positive policies on issues of maintaining social and economy harmony in the country.
Akhter. PR Executive, Institute of Objective studies, New Delhi 19 January 2008
<http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C01%5C20%5Cstory_20-1-2008_pg7_43>
Christian leader says civil society looked away while Christians were being attacked in Orissa
Retired police officer says police have become party to communal riots
By Iftikhar Gilani
NEW DELHI: Two former chief justices of India on Saturday called for removing the sense of insecurity in minorities, equal opportunity, and speedy trials in communal riot cases. Former chief justice of India, Justice (r) AM Ahmadi said a sense of insecurity in any section of the society could jeopardise the peace, prosperity, and stability of a country. “It is time to create an environment in which people can live without fear,” he told a seminar organised by the Institute of Objective Studies (IOS). Referring to the attacks on Christians and their churches and hostels in Orissa, Justice Ahmadi said minorities were being marginalised and their voices silenced by instilling fear and insecurity.
Another former chief justice, Justice (r) VN Khare, called for an autonomous body to look into cases of communal flare-up and prosecute offenders of communal riots. “A de facto doctrine of equality should be given to minorities,” he said.
Looked away: John Dayal, president of All India Catholic Union, was dissatisfied with the civil society’s response to communal flare-ups. He said the civil society “looked away” when Christians were being attacked and raped in Orissa.
Police now a party: Former senior police officer Chaman Lal said communalism was no longer an urban phenomenon, but also existed rural areas. Police had earlier been accused of inaction, he said, but had now become a party to communal riots. He said the secular fabric of India was under threat. “Security of the state and human rights can be assured if police take their duty seriously,” he stated.
A resolution passed at the end of the seminar underscored legal literacy in and accountability of administrative and law enforcement agencies by incorporating the principle of command responsibility.
-----------------------
The Hindu, New Delhi
Date: 20/01/2008
URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/20/stories/2008012057040800.htm
‘An autonomous body needed to probe communal riots’
New Delhi: Favouring the creation of an autonomous body to look into cases of communal flare ups and prosecute offenders, former Chief Justice of India V.N. Khare expressed concern over growing insecurity among minorities in the light of attacks on churches in Orissa. He said there should be an autonomous body to look into cases of communal riots. “De facto doctrine of equality should be given to minorities,” he said.
Speaking at a discussion on “Issues of Insecurity of Minorities and Efficacy of Law”, organised by the Institute of Objective Studies here on Saturday, Justice Khare said the first duty of a democratic State was to protect minorities.
Endeavour
Justice A.M. Ahmadi, former Chief Justice of India, said there was an endeavour on the part of certain groups to sow the seeds of insecurity in minorities. Referring to the attacks on Christians and churches in Orissa, Justice Ahmadi said, minorities were being marginalised and their voices silenced by instilling in them a sense of insecurity. “The culture of impunity is growing,” he said, according to a communiqué from the Institute.
John Dayal, President All India Catholic Union, alleged civil society was dead in Orissa. Christians were brutally beaten up, their prayer halls, hostels and other properties were put on fire, but the state machinery was a “mute spectator”. - PTI
© Copyright 2000 - 2008 The Hindu
---------------
Press Release
New Delhi, Jan. 19: A sense of insecurity in any section of society has the capability to jeopardise peace, prosperity and stability of a country. It is time to create an environment in which people could live without fear. This was the view of speakers of a discussion on “Issues of Insecurity of Minorities and Efficacy of Law” here at India International Centre. The programme was organised by Institute of Objective Studies. The participants also discussed as to how to make the law more efficient.
Presiding over the discussion Justice A.M. Ahmad, former Chief Justice of India, said there was an endeavour on the part of certain groups to sow the seed of insecurity in minorities. Referring to the attacks on Christians and their churches and hostels in Orissa, Justice Ahmadi said, minorities were being marginalised and their voices silenced by instilling in them a sense of insecurity. “The culture of impunity is growing.”
Former Chief Justice of India Justice V.N. Khare, who was the chief guest, emphatically said first duty of a democratic state was to protect minorities. Justice Khare said there should be an autonomous body to look into a case of communal flare-up and prosecute offenders of communal riots. “De facto doctrine of equality should be given to minorities,” he averred.
Dr John Dayal, President All India Catholic Union and Secretary General, All India Christian Council, narrating his experiences in the State, said civil society was dead in Orissa. Christians were brutally beaten up; their prayer halls, hostels and other properties were put on fire. But the state machinery was a mute spectator.
Justice Rajender Sachar, Prof. Iqbal A. Ansari, Mr. Chaman Lal, Mr. Yousuf Hatim Muchchala, Father Dominic Emmanuel, Dr Abusaleh Shariff also spoke on the topic.
At the end of the deliberations, the following resolution was adopted:
The Central Government should take measures to develop a culture of courage and enable the civil society to meet the threat posed by the Hindutva elements; human Rights regime in the country should be put in its right place through legal literacy and accountability of administrative and enforcement agencies incorporating the principle of command responsibility. The case of Bilkis Bano’s case (transferred from Gujarat to Maharashtra pursuant to Supreme Court’s directions) proves the point that a lay citizen takes courage to vindicate her human rights, justice is meted out; Insecurity has taken all minorities into its grip and measures for controlling violence are required to be extended to all sensitive localities and regions. Insults are heaped on Christians and Churches and destroyed in Orissa with impunity and their properties and lives are destroyed; hate campaigns having become a regular feature of certain groups to meet their political ends, there should be zero tolerance towards such dangerous activities by the authorities and appropriate legislation be enacted making authorities liable for their non-action in such matters.
It also demanded that measures like observance of administrative ethics and accountability to minorities should be effectively used to prevent communal violence and loss of life and property of the members of minority communities.
It mooted a people’s movement aligning all disadvantaged groups to be launched, making it incumbent on the civil society to come forward and play its role in curbing growth of hate and intolerance deliberately encouraged by some vested interests. In this connection, it was also deemed necessary that the corporate world should discharge its social responsibility towards disadvantaged groups of people and come forward with positive policies on issues of maintaining social and economy harmony in the country.
Akhter. PR Executive, Institute of Objective studies, New Delhi 19 January 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Seema Mustafa, Asian Age, on Orissa
Asian Age, New Delhi 19 January 2008
http://www.asianage.com/presentation/leftnavigation/opinion/opinion/state-of-terror.aspx
State of Terror
Seema Mustafa
It was a near midnight telephone call from colleague and trusted friend John Dayal. The panic in his voice carried over the telephone lines: "Do something, we cannot get through to anyone, the people are surrounded in Orissa, they are going to do another Gujarat." He had slammed down the receiver before one could respond. Do what John? Call whom? Who is going to listen? No one cares. Oh yes, after the violence is over they will all emerge, clucking their tongues, announcing compensation, denouncing violence, but that will all be after the event. Images of Ahsan Jafri, the veteran Congress leader, calling everyone from Gujarat to Delhi for help as the mobs gathered outside his house, flashed by. He was brutally butchered.
The Congress disappeared from Gujarat then, as it has disappeared from Orissa today. Violence has become a state subject, with state governments being given full freedom to terrorise and kill Indian citizens at will. Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik had little to say about the violence that targeted the Christians in the state, so little that he actually appeared to endorse it. The report of the National Minorities Commission has come like a gust of fresh air as it has confirmed that the violence was premeditated. And what was worse, the state government had full knowledge of it but did nothing to protect the traumatised people who went through hours of sheer terror as mobs vandalised, burnt and attacked them and their places of worship.
The NCM took suo moto cognisance of the violence following media reports. It was not asked to take note by the Central government, read the home ministry that does not react to such violence in any part of the country. Home minister Shivraj Patil has decided that communal violence should be ignored, and the government must not react to the attacks on the minorities in any part of the country. He has reduced his ministry to a cipher, where it does nothing to prevent violence, to ensure action against the perpetrators of violence, and the dispensation of justice. Everything for this ministry is a state subject — although it does not hesitate to hold meetings on the Naxalite issue, sponsor and support questionable tactics such as Salwa Judum in the states, and yet maintain a grim silence when PUCL activists are arrested and hounded by the state police as being pro-Naxalite with little or no evidence at hand. Mr Patil has established himself as the most incompetent minister in the Cabinet, and strangely enough, that is the reason why he has survived every Cabinet reshuffle. Inefficiency pays, overzealousness attracts unwarranted attention and jealousies, and such ministers are either dropped or left with little more than panchayati raj.
The NCM found that the violence against the Christian community was "organised and preplanned." It also found alarming that despite the fact that the "Christian community had given prior information to the government and the administration that it was apprehending trouble, sufficient steps were not taken to prevent the violence." What has gone wrong with our politicians, with those elected to power to protect all citizens of India regardless? What is wrong with these people who support and condone the worst kind of violence, and even participate in it? What is this sickness that has taken hold of their minds, where they see the people of India through the prism of caste and communal hatred?
True, hatred and divisiveness are the stated ideology of one group, one parivar that revels in inciting death and destruction. That creates stereotypes and spreads anger and hatred. That cashes in on frustration to motivate anger and subsequent violence. But what about all the others who are in power, and watch helplessly, and often, as in the case of the Orissa government, with a level of connivance and even delight. How is it that those who preside over pogroms are feted, wined and dined by supposedly respectable leaders of India? How is it that no one holds them accountable for the violence that has left hundreds and thousands dead? What is happening to secular, democratic India that gained independence with the pledge to treat all equally, to wipe the tears from every eye, to bring liberty and justice to its people?
Our policies create monsters, and then in tackling these we beat the poor and the oppressed mercilessly. Terrorism was converted by our governments here into communalism, and used to beat innocent Muslims all over the country — in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Not a single terrorist has been caught, but hundreds have been imprisoned, beaten and tortured as the police and administration have been given the latitude to do what they will. The same is happening in the name of tackling the Naxalite problem. Salwa Judum, where the poor were made to attack and kill the poor by cynical and unscrupulous governments, has fortunately been exposed as a terrible policy. But that has not stopped the administrations of the affected states from attacking the poor and arresting the civil rights activists who are trying to highlight the plight of the poorest of the poor. Naxalites are not these hydra-headed monsters, they are the poor of India who do not get even one meal a day, and have been convinced, wrongly of course, that violence is now the only way to get justice. The problem has two dimensions: one of social equity and justice, and the second, of law and order. Our home minister, unfortunately, does not understand the first as social justice does not seem to be part of his vocabulary.
There is a certain silence in Delhi about the role of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and its mentors in Orissa. There is complete silence about the role of chief minister Naveen Patnaik who has added insult to injury with a compensation package that basically confirms his support for those who sought to take justice into their own hands. The NCM has done a good job, but its jurisdiction is limited. It has little strength except as a moral force, and morality and conscience are certainly not the weight that politicians carry these days. Terrorism is happily recognised by all as violence. There are no two views on this, even though in the name of terrorism state governments take actions that are unjust and highly questionable. Why is communal and caste violence no longer given the same status in India? Why does it not, at least, earn pious homilies from those entrusted with India’s national security, as it actually corrodes and destroys the innards of Indian polity?
Surely, even the politicians seeking to lead the country, at the Centre and the states, today realise this basic fact. Of course, there is one group that is wedded to the polity of hate and injustice. But what about the others? The silence is now ominous, as it is indicative of a certain apathy and perhaps even a lurking sympathy for those seeking to destroy India through the politics of hate. And what is worse, as has been the case in several states in recent years, use the administration and the police to wreak state terror more effectively, and with far more dangerous consequences than the governments today are prepared to admit. When a terrorist attacks, the people turn to their government for help? When they become the victims of terror unleashed by the state, who do they turn to for help? If this question is understood and the answers are placed in the correct perspective, then perhaps, the government can even today come up with a policy that is genuinely pro-people and pro-India.
But first, get Mr Patil out of the home ministry and find someone who understands and is sensitive to the real politics of India. One can suggest at least two names even amongst the present lot, but such is the paranoia of the Congress in power, that the suggestion from these columns will effectively place the two individuals in the dog house. After all, the reason why Shivraj Patil continues to head the most important ministry of India is because no one likes him, and he is answerable only to the powers that be. The country be damned.
http://www.asianage.com/presentation/leftnavigation/opinion/opinion/state-of-terror.aspx
State of Terror
Seema Mustafa
It was a near midnight telephone call from colleague and trusted friend John Dayal. The panic in his voice carried over the telephone lines: "Do something, we cannot get through to anyone, the people are surrounded in Orissa, they are going to do another Gujarat." He had slammed down the receiver before one could respond. Do what John? Call whom? Who is going to listen? No one cares. Oh yes, after the violence is over they will all emerge, clucking their tongues, announcing compensation, denouncing violence, but that will all be after the event. Images of Ahsan Jafri, the veteran Congress leader, calling everyone from Gujarat to Delhi for help as the mobs gathered outside his house, flashed by. He was brutally butchered.
The Congress disappeared from Gujarat then, as it has disappeared from Orissa today. Violence has become a state subject, with state governments being given full freedom to terrorise and kill Indian citizens at will. Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik had little to say about the violence that targeted the Christians in the state, so little that he actually appeared to endorse it. The report of the National Minorities Commission has come like a gust of fresh air as it has confirmed that the violence was premeditated. And what was worse, the state government had full knowledge of it but did nothing to protect the traumatised people who went through hours of sheer terror as mobs vandalised, burnt and attacked them and their places of worship.
The NCM took suo moto cognisance of the violence following media reports. It was not asked to take note by the Central government, read the home ministry that does not react to such violence in any part of the country. Home minister Shivraj Patil has decided that communal violence should be ignored, and the government must not react to the attacks on the minorities in any part of the country. He has reduced his ministry to a cipher, where it does nothing to prevent violence, to ensure action against the perpetrators of violence, and the dispensation of justice. Everything for this ministry is a state subject — although it does not hesitate to hold meetings on the Naxalite issue, sponsor and support questionable tactics such as Salwa Judum in the states, and yet maintain a grim silence when PUCL activists are arrested and hounded by the state police as being pro-Naxalite with little or no evidence at hand. Mr Patil has established himself as the most incompetent minister in the Cabinet, and strangely enough, that is the reason why he has survived every Cabinet reshuffle. Inefficiency pays, overzealousness attracts unwarranted attention and jealousies, and such ministers are either dropped or left with little more than panchayati raj.
The NCM found that the violence against the Christian community was "organised and preplanned." It also found alarming that despite the fact that the "Christian community had given prior information to the government and the administration that it was apprehending trouble, sufficient steps were not taken to prevent the violence." What has gone wrong with our politicians, with those elected to power to protect all citizens of India regardless? What is wrong with these people who support and condone the worst kind of violence, and even participate in it? What is this sickness that has taken hold of their minds, where they see the people of India through the prism of caste and communal hatred?
True, hatred and divisiveness are the stated ideology of one group, one parivar that revels in inciting death and destruction. That creates stereotypes and spreads anger and hatred. That cashes in on frustration to motivate anger and subsequent violence. But what about all the others who are in power, and watch helplessly, and often, as in the case of the Orissa government, with a level of connivance and even delight. How is it that those who preside over pogroms are feted, wined and dined by supposedly respectable leaders of India? How is it that no one holds them accountable for the violence that has left hundreds and thousands dead? What is happening to secular, democratic India that gained independence with the pledge to treat all equally, to wipe the tears from every eye, to bring liberty and justice to its people?
Our policies create monsters, and then in tackling these we beat the poor and the oppressed mercilessly. Terrorism was converted by our governments here into communalism, and used to beat innocent Muslims all over the country — in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Not a single terrorist has been caught, but hundreds have been imprisoned, beaten and tortured as the police and administration have been given the latitude to do what they will. The same is happening in the name of tackling the Naxalite problem. Salwa Judum, where the poor were made to attack and kill the poor by cynical and unscrupulous governments, has fortunately been exposed as a terrible policy. But that has not stopped the administrations of the affected states from attacking the poor and arresting the civil rights activists who are trying to highlight the plight of the poorest of the poor. Naxalites are not these hydra-headed monsters, they are the poor of India who do not get even one meal a day, and have been convinced, wrongly of course, that violence is now the only way to get justice. The problem has two dimensions: one of social equity and justice, and the second, of law and order. Our home minister, unfortunately, does not understand the first as social justice does not seem to be part of his vocabulary.
There is a certain silence in Delhi about the role of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and its mentors in Orissa. There is complete silence about the role of chief minister Naveen Patnaik who has added insult to injury with a compensation package that basically confirms his support for those who sought to take justice into their own hands. The NCM has done a good job, but its jurisdiction is limited. It has little strength except as a moral force, and morality and conscience are certainly not the weight that politicians carry these days. Terrorism is happily recognised by all as violence. There are no two views on this, even though in the name of terrorism state governments take actions that are unjust and highly questionable. Why is communal and caste violence no longer given the same status in India? Why does it not, at least, earn pious homilies from those entrusted with India’s national security, as it actually corrodes and destroys the innards of Indian polity?
Surely, even the politicians seeking to lead the country, at the Centre and the states, today realise this basic fact. Of course, there is one group that is wedded to the polity of hate and injustice. But what about the others? The silence is now ominous, as it is indicative of a certain apathy and perhaps even a lurking sympathy for those seeking to destroy India through the politics of hate. And what is worse, as has been the case in several states in recent years, use the administration and the police to wreak state terror more effectively, and with far more dangerous consequences than the governments today are prepared to admit. When a terrorist attacks, the people turn to their government for help? When they become the victims of terror unleashed by the state, who do they turn to for help? If this question is understood and the answers are placed in the correct perspective, then perhaps, the government can even today come up with a policy that is genuinely pro-people and pro-India.
But first, get Mr Patil out of the home ministry and find someone who understands and is sensitive to the real politics of India. One can suggest at least two names even amongst the present lot, but such is the paranoia of the Congress in power, that the suggestion from these columns will effectively place the two individuals in the dog house. After all, the reason why Shivraj Patil continues to head the most important ministry of India is because no one likes him, and he is answerable only to the powers that be. The country be damned.
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