29th JULY 2001

Concern at new threats to Religious Freedom; Council legal aid for converts victimized by Orissa Police; Govt. threatens draconian laws, VHP takes law in its own hands.

The All India Christian Council calls upon Civil Society, the national Human Rights Commission and fellow citizens to take united action to counter a series of recent incidents in several Indian states by Fundamentalist extremists of the Sangh Parivar, as well as by police forces acting at their behest, in which the civil rights of Christian individuals and groups have been violently attacked. The Council is deeply concerned that the central and state governments, instead of taking urgent steps to restore confidence among the terrorized minorities, have seemingly condoned such actions. The Centre is in fact, according to media reports, bringing forward legislation that will further and more seriously affect religious minorities in the country and their work, and injure Constitutional guarantees.

The Council has declared it will extend al legal assistance to the victims who have been terrorized, especially in the states of Orissa, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The most ominous incident has taken place in Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where the state government controlled by the Bharatiya Janata party has condoned military training with firearms provided to elements of the Sangh Parivar in recent months. In that city on 24th July 2001, a Christian religious worker was among five persons "detained" by self-styled vigilantes of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The five men had come to the city to attend a meeting. The City Superintendent of Police, who had the five men released, admitted they were innocent of the charges of conversion levied against them. The police have however taken no action against the VHP goons who terrorized the Christian group.

VHP groups are also terrorizing the inmates of an ashram in Kota district of Rajasthan which is home to over 1,500 destitute and orphaned young people from various parts of the country. Death threats have been made against Bishop M A Thomas and officials of the Ashram. Many other similar cases have been reported from other states.

In Orissa, ruled by a coalition in which the BJP is a partner, the police have looked on while Tribal Christians are being coerced into `reconverting' to Hinduism. The Police have evoked the infamous and ironically named Freedom of Religion Act selectively against the Christians but not against their tormentors. As the media has reported, 17 adult persons had some time ago become Christians, and had told the police they had done so of their own free will, without any duress or allurement. The police, acting at the behest of local religio-political goons, however chose to prosecute them and registered cases against them. Emboldened by this, the local fundamentalist elements intimidated the Christians, organizing social ostracism against them. Reports suggest that the authorities tacitly supported the "re-conversion." The council has deplored the blatant religious partisanship of the local police and civil administration.

It is quite clear that these elements are getting strengthened by the attitude of the Central government. The minority communities, specially Christians are alarmed, at the failure of the Central government to denounce a Private Members bill moved by one of their party members in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, which seeks a ban on religious conversions, which in affect means a ban on freedom of faith. This bill evoked dark memories of a similar Hitlerian OP Tyagi Bill in the late Seventies which the government, of which the current Bharatiya Janata party was a part, had extended its support.

The council has also strongly criticized the government's reported plan to enact new laws to strangle foreign donations and grants to minority, specially Christian, institutions and organizations. The existing Foreign Contributions Act, FCRA, is already being used as a weapon by the BJP government to target Christian groups and to stifle all protest. We fear the proposed laws are being designed to entirely curtain the educational and public welfare work of the Christian church in India.

Christian groups have been thoroughly investigated in the law two years and have been found innocent, and yet extremist groups as well as ruling political parties have persisted a hate campaign against us using disinformation, halt truths and malicious lies.

We call upon Civil Society, the national Human Rights Commission and all fellow citizens to unite in fighting this erosion of civil liberties and constitutional guarantees.