|
NEW DELHI -- 29 June 2009: The Christian
community today asked the Union government to intervene
decisively in Orissa and ensure the protection of
witnesses whose lives are being threatened by criminals,
including politicians and legislators of the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) charged with multiple murders in the
anti-Christian violence of August-October 2008.
Community representatives were invited today to the
offices of the new Central Minister for Minority
Affairs, Mr. Salman Khursheed, to brief him on issues
confronting the 2.6 crore [26 million] Christians in the
country. The Christian delegation included: Delhi
Catholic auxiliary Bishop Franco, Believers Church
Bishop Simon John, All India Christian Council Secretary
General Dr. John Dayal, Sister Molly of St. Beads
College in Shimla, and others. The Minister said he
would take up the issues presented with relevant
ministries in the Union government and state
governments.
The Christian delegation demanded that the community be
consulted in the formulation of the proposed Equal
Opportunities Commission, the Anti-Communal Violence
Bill, and the educational reforms that Union Human
Resources Development minister Kapil Sibal proposed in
recent public statements. The delegation also emphasised
the urgent need to give Scheduled Caste status to Dalit
Christians, establishing a commission to assess economic
deprivation in the community along the lines of the
Justice Sachhar Committee for Muslims, commensurate
share in central development funds, full relief and
rehabilitation to all victims of communal violence in
Orissa and other states, abrogation of so-called Freedom
of Religion laws passed by both BJP and Congress ruled
states, and an end to harassment of Christian
educational institutions, pastors, evangelists in
various states.
Dr. John Dayal, AICC Secretary General, said, "We are
pleased the new Minister of Minority Affairs is actively
seeking input from all minority communities. As
Christians, we asked for special attention to historic
injustices like discrimination against Dalit Christians
as well as recent injustices including the
anti-Christian riots in Orissa. We desire peace and
trust this government will enforce the rule of law
across our beloved country."
Following is the text of the memo presented to the
minister.
Mr. Salman Khursheed Hon'ble Minister, Independent
Charge Ministry for Minority Affairs, New Delhi 29 June
2009 Dear Minister, Greetings from the All India
Christian Council and the other organisations I have the
honour to represent. Please also accept our
congratulations on your election to the Lok Sabha, and
your installation as Minister with Independent Charge of
Minority Affairs, an important portfolio that can help
ensure strengthening of the very foundations of a
secular and united India.
We thank you for inviting us to this meeting, even as we
take this opportunity to express how touched we are at
the feelings expressed last week by Union Home Minister
Mr. P. Chidambaram who, during his visit to Orissa,
offered an apology to the victims of Hindutva violence
in the Kandhamal region. We expect the expressions of
remorse will be followed by unremitting action by the
Union and State governments in unison till confidence is
restored, the guilty punished, the victims rehabilitated
with all human dignity, and a Witness Protection
Programme put into operation to ensure justice in the
courts. My colleague Dr. Sam Paul, the National
Secretary of the All India Christian Council, has
already written this in a letter to Mr. Chidambaram.
As you are aware, the Church in India called upon all
people, and specially Christians, to fully take part in
the political democratic process in the General
Elections, as it wanted India to emerge as nation strong
enough to combat terrorism, communalism, and casteism.
We continue to be deeply concerned at the rural crisis,
urban poverty, and rise in unemployment, displacement in
the SEZs - as Christians too are sufferers together with
others -- and the plight of women and the girl child.
The Christian community puts its own interests
subservient to the interests of the Nation. But it feels
that there are certain issues which are paramount
security of Religious Minorities, compensation to the
victims at par with that given in other states,
proportionate share to Christians in funds and projects
earmarked for all minorities, as also in government
jobs, civil services, police and other services, and
removal of obstructions in the continuation and growth
of our effort in the education, health and social
service sectors.
On the eve of the General Elections, national
consultations of Church and community leaders, presided
over by Archbishop Vincent Concessao, with Dr. John
Dayal as the convenor, formulated urgent issues
agitating the community. We had given such a list to the
Prime Minister in his previous government and to your
predecessor in the ministry. We also held consultations
with the Planning Commission once to ensure that the
National Five Year Plans, as well as the National Census
and National Sample Surveys reflected the Christian
reality in the hinterland. Nothing has been done, and
therefore we present you once again some, not all, of
the grave issues that confront the Christian community
and challenge the people and the Church.
Our immediate anxiety, of course, continues to be Orissa
where the situation remains grave, as Mr. Chidambaram
saw for himself, with thousands in government refugee
camps, tens of thousands not able to return home under
threat of being killed or forcibly converted to Hinduism
by the local Sangh Parivar activists, and witnesses to
murders, rape and mayhem being threatened with death by
goons of the culprits. It is a shame and slur on
democratic processes that two of the men accused of
murders have been elected to the State Assembly on
Bharatiya Janata Party ticket, and they are using their
political clout to evade justice.
Our other major issues, requiring your urgent attention
are:
1. Security of Religious Minorities: The Christian
community had felt itself very safe in India since
Independence, and the formative years of the democracy
under Jawaharlal Nehru, and then under the premiership
of Lal Bahadur Shashtri, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
But after a spurt of violence in 1998-1999, hate crimes
against the Church and the Christian community have been
increasing alarmingly since 1997, averaging about 250
incidents a year. But 2007 and 2008 have seen such
violence reach an unprecedented level. The violence has
not been confined to Orissa. Fourteen other States have
been affected, seven seriously. Karnataka is now second
only to Orissa in crimes against Christians. Orissa in
2008 saw 120 deaths, 4,600 houses burnt, over 300
villages purged of Christians, and women, including
religious women, raped. Six thousand men, women and
children are still in government refugee camps, from the
peak of 26,000. Battalions of Central forces are needed
to maintain peace, and yet a sense of deep insecurity
permeates the community in Orissa.
a. The Union Government must carry out a full
investigation into the nationwide activities of
extremist groups accused of the incitement and
perpetration of violence against minority groups,
including Hindutva groups, their foreign finances, and
their penetration into the administrative and police
apparatus.
b. Enforcing rule of law, ending impunity of state,
police and criminal justice dispensation system in
assuring freedom of faith: In state after state, the
community has watched in utter helplessness uniformed
policemen accompany assailants attacking instituions,
churches and house churches. In states such as Manipur,
even villages have dared pass laws against Christians,
banning conversions and excommunicating people. Pastors
and priests have been arrested on false charges, denied
bail, and harassed. Often, the police have stood by
while priests, pastors and lay persons were beaten up,
often in the glare of television cameras. The
subordinate magistracy and judiciary have often been
partisan in their conduct. This impunity must end.
c. The Prevention of Communal Violence Bill must take
cognisance of Christian concerns and apprehensions.
Government cannot shrug off responsibility. The
rehabilitation seems to have been left to the Church. It
is for the governments to reconstruct damaged and
destroyed homes, institutions and churches, and provide
adequate and commensurate compensation to the victims.
These would be deterrent, in fact, to violence against
the community.
2. Redress economic deprivation and reversal of
Unemployment and under-employment amongst Christian
youth; Need for a National Commission on the lines of
the Justice Rajender Sachhar Commission set up for
Muslims: There is over 8 [Eight] per cent joblessness
amongst Christian youth, the highest among minorities.
Tribal Christian girls are amongst the most deprived in
terms of education and nourishment. Rural employment
generation schemes and central special components for
marginalised groups do not reach their Christian
counterparts in Tribal and Rural India. There is no real
assessment as to what extent institutions such as the
National Minorities Financial Development Corporation,
or sundry scholarship schemes have benefitted the
Christian community even if they may have benefited some
other minorities. The Government must urgently set up a
Commission on the pattern of the Justice Sachhar
committee to survey and assess the quantum of
deprivation, marginalisation and lack of devolution of
developmental in
itiatives, to the Christian community. Government must
ensure fair spending on a pro rata basis on the
Christian community from schemes meant to benefit the
minority communities. Dalits, Tribals, landless labour
and marginal farmers, coastal and fishery workers and
urban youth remain major victims.
3. Dalit Christian rights: Successive governments have
betrayed Christians of Dalit origin. The Constitution of
1950 provided for affirmative action for Scheduled
Castes without reference to religion. The Presidential
Order of 1950, subsequently made into law, communalised
the affirmative action by penalising those who converted
to other faiths.
Subsequently, government extended the privileges once
again to Sikhs and Buddhists of Dalit origin. Christians
remain deprived of these rights, though several study
groups and national commissions have strongly
recommended that these rights be given to Dalit
Christians. This in effect communalises the secular
Indian Constitution. Government must pass legislation to
immediately restore the Constitution to its 26 January
1950 position on this issue so that Dalit Christians get
all privileges and safeguards that are given to their
brothers and sisters professing other faiths. The
recommendations of the Justice Ranganath Misra
Commission should be implemented.
4. Assault on right of Tribal Christians: Strident and
frightening statements have been made in right wing
Hindutva groups in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and
Chhattisgarh, among others, threatening to deny
Christian Tribals their statutory rights in education,
land and employment, and to restrict tribal rights to
only those who convert to Hinduism. This violates
Constitutional guarantees, and divides the tribal
people. The Union government must thwart all such
nefarious efforts and hate mongering.
5. Irrational and Bigoted implementation of Forest Act
and its implications for Dalit Christians: Recent
experience in Orissa's Kandhamal and other districts
have shown how Supreme Court guidelines are being
ignored in the implementation of the Forest Act, and
traditional forest dwellers, many of them Dalits, are
being deprived of their land, livelihood and even
liberty as false cases are being brought against them.
This, of course, must cease forthwith. The right of all
indigenous dwellers must be protected according to the
guidelines of the Supreme Court and witch-hunt and
harassment must end.
6. Erosion of Minority Rights under Article 30: Various
state governments and political parties have tried to
infringe upon Article 30, and have made persistent
efforts to erode the rights of Minorities to run and
administer educational institutions. Christian
educational institutions have frequently had to approach
the Supreme Court of India to try to protect these
fundamental rights. The ironically titled Freedom of
Religion Bills actually erodes the Constitutional right
to freedom to profess, practice and propagate faith.
They have become instruments of persecution, and in
fact, provide an excuse for criminal and communal
elements to target the Church and Christian workers in
particular when they exercise their right to propagate
their faith. Government must assure there will be no
effort in the future to infringe upon, erode, or nibble
at minority educational and other Constitutional rights
under any pretext.
7. The Union government must use its good offices to
ensure that state governments both under Congress
control and run by other parties withdraw laws they have
passed under the guise of Freedom of Religion, which in
actuality, are being used to brutally suppress
Christianity and punish Pastors, Priests, Nuns and
church workers.
8. Shrinking Secular-Spiritual Space: State and city
administrations are auctioning land for schools and
hospitals in the open market. The result is that the
Church and voluntary sector can no longer get legal
possession of low cost land for providing Educational
and health facilities to the marginalised groups are
affordable prices. In addition, new townships and urban
spaces, most of them now in the private sector, do not
provide for simple and basic secular spaces, including
plots of land for churches and cemeteries. In many new
urban conglomerates in the emerging landscape, there is,
in fact, no provision for cemeteries at all. Union and
State Governments must ensure adequate and commensurate
secular and spiritual space education land, cemeteries,
etc.
9. Ending gender-bias and upholding the rights of women
in reforms in Christian Personal Laws: Christian Women
more than a decade ago led a campaign for reforms in
Christian personal laws which dated from the Nineteenth
Century. Though some progress has been made, Governments
have been tardy in passing reform amendments to the
centuries' old Christian personal laws despite the
united endorsement and support by the Catholic Bishops
Conference of India, the National Council of Churches,
the Joint Women's Programme and others. Political
parties must assure the community that laws will
reformed in full as devised in the documents prepared by
the united Christian campaign to bring them in line with
contemporary demands of gender rights.
10. We welcome the concept of an Equal Opportunity
commission, but it must be formed in consultation with
the Christian community and other minority groups.
11. We also demand statutory status to the National
Commission for Minorities and assurances that such
Central commissions work for the actual benefit of the
communities and not as adjuncts of political parties.
12. The Church and the Community uphold the sanctity of
life and any attempt to destroy it at any stage is
unacceptable. Advances and research in science, such as
stem cell research, cloning, transplants, must be in
consonance with ethical and moral values. Legislation
must not be passed which compromises human life in any
form and which justifies meddling with the established
processes in nature in the guise of scientific research.
13. Special Memorandum on Orissa: The Union government
must use its good offices with the Orissa government to:
i. Ensure that (with reference to the ruling of the
Supreme Court in Writ Petitions) police unfailingly
assist victims of violence to submit FIRs.
ii. There must be a Witness Protection Programme put
into immediate operation giving serious consideration to
the need for a suitable atmosphere for victims and
witnesses to testify, in order to expedite prosecutions
and convictions;
iii. Investigate reports of police officers failing to
register cases or showing complicity in attacks, and
bring prosecutions against offending officers;
iv. Supply a substantial number of investigating
officers and public prosecutors, and implement
fast-track courts in at least four locations in
Kandhamal district.
v. Investigate the forcible conversion of Christians to
Hinduism, and prosecute perpetrators under the
provisions of the Indian Penal Code;
vi. Request that the Central Bureau of Investigation
(CBI) carry out an investigation into the assassination
of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Lakhma-nananda Saraswati
and the subsequent anti-Christian violence from 24th
August 2008, paying specific attention to the root
causes of this violence, including the propagation of
anti-Christian hatred;
vii. Undertake the following actions with regard to
relief camps, taking into consideration the UN Guiding
Principles on Internal Displacement:
Provide an adequate standard of living to the
inhabitants of relief camps, in accordance with the
definition given in Principle 18; Provide education to
displaced children in relief camps, in accordance with
Principle 23; Ensure that relief camps continue until
the establishment of suitable conditions and the means
for the displaced persons to return voluntarily, in
safety and with dignity, to their homes, or to resettle
voluntarily, in accordance with Principle 28; Grant
permission and security to lawyers, priests and medical
teams to visit relief camps in Kandhamal;
viii. Provide further compensation for those who have
been affected by the violence, including covering the
loss of crops, livestock and employment, and assess
required levels of compensation on a case-by-case basis
through certified independent evaluators;
ix. The Government should take measures to carry out an
extensive research with the view to rehabilitating the
victims of violence, make the recommendations public,
and implement them without loss of time.
x. Undertake to follow the recommendations of the
National Commission for Minorities in September 2008 on
the establishment of Peace Committees, and further to
take measures to ensure that all communities are
adequately represented within such Peace Committees, to
enable these to promote reconciliation and
inter-communal understanding with integrity;
xi. Establish a State Commission for Minorities (in the
model of its national counterpart) and ensure that
members of the commission are appointed by transparent
and non-partisan procedures;
xii. Repeal the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1967.
Xiii. Provide further compensation for those who have
been affected by the violence, including covering the
loss of crops, livestock and employment, and assess
required levels of compensation on a case-by-case basis
through certified independent evaluators
|
