Asian Human Rights Commission
AHRC Publications - Human Rights Solidarity - March 2000 Volume 10 No. 3

AHRC - Human Rights Solidarity - March 2000 Volume 10 No. 3 -  Christians Still Endangered

A year after Graham Stuart Staines, who worked with patients of leprosy in the forest areas of Orissa, and his young sons Timothy and Philip were burnt alive as they slept in their jeep in the village of Manouharpur in the night of 22 and 23 January 1999, their killers still elude the police forces of the Central government and the governments of three states.

The communal ideology and political forces that moved the killers, as they struck at the three helpless persons on the remain active not only in Orissa, but also in many other parts of the country.

In Orissa, Fr. Arul Das was brutally murdered within a few months of the murder of the Staines. Each of them paid the price of daring to work for the empowerment of the poor, the ostracised, and the marginalised.

The year since the death of Staines has seen increasing cynicism and unconcern on the part of the Central government, and in particular of the Bharatiya Janata party that leads the ruling alliance at the Centre, and is in power in many states. In the wake of the triple murder, it launched a powerful propaganda at home and abroad, trying to whitewash the butchery that the followers of the Sangh Parivar had unleashed. It spent scores of rupees in spinning a web of falsehoods using official government machinery to target the minorities, especially Christians. There continues to be inaction in over 60 cases of violence that we have recorded in 1999.

The Justice Wadhwa Commission has since given its report. Not just the Christian community, but the judicial and legal community and civil society have expressed their shock that despite concrete evidence on the political background and affiliation of Dara Singh, the well-identified leader of the killer gang, Justice Wadhwa failed to find any link between Dara and the Sangh Parivar whose election campaigner the Uttar Pradesh thug was.

Since then the full report of the Special investigative team has become available, and it leaves no one in any doubt of the Sangh affiliations of the killers.

The reports have conclusively repudiated official insinuations, repeated often by Central ministers, of forcible conversions in Orissa or anywhere else. But while it fails to arrest Dara Singh, the official machinery is working overtime to issue notices to Christian organisations in Orissa telling them to obey the nefarious Anti-conversion Act which violates the freedom of religion enshrined in the Constitution. Such notices have been received by Christian organisations and institutions in the tribal belt in recent weeks.

Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat have become the laboratory of Hindutva, where the governments in power are challenging the concepts of secularism and fair play that form the backbone of the Constitution and the bedrock of Indian democracy and unity.

In Uttar Pradesh, a heavily politicised and authoritarian police and administration have been given extraordinary powers against the minority communities through the so-called "Places of Worship" legislation. Efforts continue to be made to enforce a narrow sectarian agenda on the education system.

The government of Gujarat has transcended all limits of civil conduct, shedding the last vestige of its pretense at a secular neutrality by openly encouraging civil and police officers and employees to join the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and other Sangh Parivar organisations. Meanwhile, it enforces a harsh regime against the minorities, using official threats against educational and other institutions and personnel. The Christmas season in Gujarat saw a curfew like situation in the Dangs and harassment of the Christian community in many places.

The government however allowed the controversial Shilanayas at Halmodi village in Surat and the holding of a Hindutva meeting in Ahwa on Christmas day, breaking its own rules in doing so.

The Central government has reneged on its commitment to observe 2000 AD as the year of Christ. It is however rapidly succeeding in its attempt at absolute Hindutvaisation of the national educational and youth policy. It is also conniving with the Sangh Parivar in the continuing effort to crush the freedoms, and more than that, the spirit, of the Minority communities of the country. The government and its leadership have not raised a finger to stop the Parivar's plot to demonise the minorities and question their patriotism and their loyalty to their motherland.

If anything, the Central government has used the powers at its command to harass the minorities. The latest is the attempt of the Department of Posts and Telegraph to cancel postal facilities for scores of Christian magazines and newspapers in many states.

The Christian community remembers in martyrs, and is strengthened in reflecting on their commitment to the cause of justice,peace and service to the poor for which they laid down their lives, and for which others face a daily threat. We commemorate their memory by rededicating ourselves to the service of the poor and the marginalised. With others in civil society, we stress our solidarity with our Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain brothers and sisters, the Dalits and marginalised groups struggling for human dignity and an opportunity for development

We take this opportunity to remind members of the ruling NDA alliance, and those of its members who also rule in the states of the expectations that the nation's minorities have of them, and the tremendous and powerful role they can play as members of a federal polity, to ensure the welfare of the minorities and an end to the nefarious Hindutviasation of government policy and public space. They and Chief Ministers of States are historically placed to help undo the damage that has been done to the secular fabric of the nation, and to ensure that the NDA government does not allow itself to be hijacked by protagonists of the sectarian and communal agenda, which threatens the unity and integrity of the country.

In many parts of the country, memorial services are being organised for Graham Stuart Staines and his sons. In Manouharpur and Baripada, where they lived and died, memorial services will be held on 22nd and 23rd January.

The best memorial to these and other martyrs is the strengthening of the secular fabric of India, nurturing its federal and democratic policy, its plural culture, and a commitment of solidarity with Dalits, the Tribals, the poor and the marginalised.

Asian Human Rights Commission
Email: ahrchk@ahrchk.org
Last updated Juni 07, 2000 08:28 .
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