India’s inability to stop attacks on Christians in Orissa and Karnataka could snowball into a major international embarrassment.
NEW DELHI: India’s inability to stop attacks on Christians in Orissa and Karnataka could snowball into a major international embarrassment. The question international rights groups are asking is whether these attacks are organised and, if so, what is the government doing to stop them.
“Deal with the problem. Take action against the culprits. The Indian government has not made this a priority, the signs were there for all to see. Now it is scrambling and looking for an answer,” says Brad Adams, executive director of Human Rights Watch, a respected US-based rights group.
The tribals of the eastern state are some of the poorest and most vulnerable sections in the state. Yet neither the state or the Centre have bothered to provide them with protection and known minority-baiter like Pravin Togadia is allowed to visit Orissa and make inflammatory speeches to further incite the crowd.
New Delhi’s standard answer to any queries of the incidents in Orissa and Karnataka is to say law and order is a state subject and India is capable of doing what is right. But so far the UPA administration has been unable to protect minorities. Human rights activists are amazed at both the central and state government’s lack of will to protect vulnerable sections of society. “Indian government allows itself to be pushed into a corner and is on the backfoot,” says Adams.
In Orissa everyone including local reporters were aware of the tension between the Bajrang Dal activists and the Christians, yet nothing was done to diffuse the situation.
Since December, tension was building in these areas.
Orissa chief minister Navin Patnaik received all the reports and sat on them. The priest who was killed should also have been provided protection, as the danger to his life was known to all. After he died, the body was taken in a funeral procession through nearly 100 km, and churches on the way were stoned and attacked. Any sensible government would not have allowed this.
If Simi and other Muslim organizations are targeted, the Bajrang Dal which is equally guilty should also be banned, he says. This will at least give a semblance of fairness and send out the right signals to minorities in India, already agitated that the Congress government in Maharashtra has done nothing to implement the Sri Krishna Commission report.
g_seema@dnaindia.net
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