RIGHTS-INDIA: Attacks on Christians Trouble BJP

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Jun 14 2000 (IPS) - A wave of violence against the country’s minority Christians has again created trouble for India’s ruling alliance led by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP.)

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s BJP has denied involvement in the attacks on Christians in the past few weeks in southern Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa states.

But a key ally, the southern regional Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has threatened to pull out of the government if Christian leaders prove their charge that the BJP’s radical Hindu affiliates are behind the attacks.

Church leaders have pointed accusing fingers at the hardline Hindu Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), known as the BJP’s ideological mentor.

The BJP has reason to worry after TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu told reporters that he saw a pattern in the six separate bomb blasts near churches in the state in May and June.

“All six incidents are similar in nature and a single organisation could be behind them,” Naidu said.

On Jun 8, time-bombs went off at the Gewett Memorial Baptist Church in Ongloe town and the Mother Vandini Catholic Church at the Tadepalligudam town. Naidu flew into both towns to reassure the people.

Bombings, apparently orchestrated, were also carried out the same day on a small Catholic church in the Wadi town of Karnataka and on the St. Andrews church in the predominantly Catholic, former Portuguese enclave of Goa.

Naidu’s threat, coupled with representations by the Archbishop of Delhi, Alain de Lastic, has made Vajpayee order a probe into the bombings and distribution of anti-church literature.

However BJP spokesman Venkaiah Naidu Tuesday tried to deflect criticism by laying partial blame on Christian groups which, according to him, were “conducting a hate campaign against Hindu gods.”

The tough-talking Naidu warned the BJP’s foes, specially the main opposition Congress party, not to make political capital from the incidents. The Congress has set up a panel of its leaders to probe the incidents.

According to the BJP’s Naidu, the blasts were part of a political conspiracy to destablise the Vajpayee government.

“The truth would soon come out exposing the campaign against the BJP and the government at the centre,” he claimed.

Earlier, the BJP and its affiliates accused Pakistani intelligence agencies of masterminding the blasts. However, Christian groups were not willing to accept this explanation.

“Christians have become sick of these statements,” said a press note issued by the All-India Christian Council.

It recalled similar statements accusing a “foreign hand” for the most gruesome incident of anti-Christian violence when Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons were torched to death in eastern coastal Orissa state early last year.

According to John Dayal, National Secretary of the All-India Catholic Union, the federal government and the BJP were “directly responsible” for the attacks.

In April, the global human rights watchdog, Amnesty International accused the BJP of failing to clearly denounce acts of violence against members of religious minorities.

An Amnesty document, ‘Persecuted for Challenging Injustice,’ accused BJP affiliates such as the RSS, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal of violence against minorities and of making public statements which incite violence.

Amnesty said the Indian government was obliged to protect all citizens against violence whether incited by state officials or by other individuals or groups.

The anti-Christian violence began in April with a spate of attacks around Easter on Christian missionaries in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

This was in keeping with a pattern of anti-minority violence directed at Christians that erupted soon after Vajpayee’s alliance took office for the first time in March 1998.

Although Christians make up just two percent of the one billion Indians, the community has a high profile because it runs much sought-after public schools and hospitals as part of missionary work.

Hindu groups accuse Christian missionaries of inducing poor tribals and low-caste Hindus to become Christians. Christian missionaries deny this, but insist on their “constitutional right to propagate religion and to work among the poor.”