Ram Puniyani
Electoral politics is a strange
game. We can observe that with the present weaknesses of electoral system many
alliances are made up, which do not have much ideological basis. Amongst many
flaws of the present system is the system of first past the poll. This prevents
the true representation of people in the elected bodies. Many a times, the
players on the political chess board, highlight and undermine facts depending
on their political contingencies keeping in mind the need to keep their allies
in good humor. One does not know whether these players of politics are ignorant
about facts or choose to say things which are needed for their political
victory or survival. Examples galore!
 |
| P.A. Sangma |
Recently the candidate of
President’s post, P.A. Sangma (June 25, 2012) when asked about Sangh’s alleged
role in Kandhamal killings and Pastor Graham Stains murder said that there is
no proof to suggest of their (Sangh-BJP) involvement in these killings. He was
also asked about anti-Christian stance of Sangh Parivar and Jayalalita. One
does not know how much track Sangama is keeping of the happenings in the
Adivasi areas; where anti Christian violence has come up as a major phenomenon.
Be it the Adivasi areas of Gujarat, MP, Maharashtra
or Orissa, the Christians in the Adivasi areas and the priests and nuns working
in these areas have been the victim of violence unleashed in these areas. Also
one cannot forget Jayalalitha’s anti conversion bill and its withdrawal in due
course.
The most heinous of these crimes
was the burning alive of Pastor Graham Stewards Stains on the night of 23rd January
1999, in Keonjhar in Manoharpur district of Orissa. Pastor Stains and his two
innocent sons Timothy and Philip (Age 10 and 6 respectively) were sleeping in a
jeep, after the function in a village. They were burnt alive by Dara Singh of
Bajrang Dal. Right next day the then Home minister Lal Krishna Advani said that
Bajrnag Dal cannot do so, he knows them very well. Meanwhile a team of three
central ministers, Murli Manohar Joshi, George Fernandez and Navin Pattnaik
visited Keonjhar and proclaimed that international forces have done the act of
burning as they want to destabilize the NDA Government.
Advani appointed Wadhva
Commission. The commission in its report confirmed that the murder was done by
Dara Singh alias Ravinder Kumar Pal who had instigated the local people. Dara
Singh propagated that Pastor is anti Hindu, he is converting the people to
Christianity and his work for leprosy patients is just a cover. Dara Singh was
active in the local programs organized by Bajrang Dal and Sangh Privar
associates. Wadhva Commission did point out that there was no
statistical significant increase in Christian population in the area where
Pastor Stains was working. In 1991 it was 0.299% and in 1999 it became 0.307%
The murder of Pastor Stains was part of the phenomenon of anti Christian
violence which has been unleashed from last nearly two decades. The major role
in this is the anti Christian propaganda done by Sangh Parivar, Vishwa Hindu
Parishad, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and Bajrang Dal. BJP’s local leaders are also
fairly active in these anti Christian activities. There is a great amount of
overlap in the functions of these, progeny of RSS. In Orissa many a BJP
MLA-leaders were very active in the process.
 |
| Graham Staines and family |
The anti Christian violence has
been investigated by various citizens’ tribunals and committees. In
Gujarat “Untold Story of Hindukaran in Gujarat’ by a citizens
committee in 2006, in Orissa by the Indian People’s tribunal headed by Justice
(Retd) K.K.Usha in 2006 and last one the National People’s tribunal (2010)
headed by Justice A.P. Shah went into the Kandhamal violence. All reports
showed that it is the hate propaganda unleashed by these communal organizations
which is the base of violence in Adivasi areas. Interesting observation is that
for the same type of activities the Christian missionaries in cities are not
attacked by these groups. Moreover many a times the children of the
practitioners of this politics do study in the schools run by Christian
missionaries in the cities.
In case of Kandhmal, the story
was the worst off and the tribunal named many a BJP leaders was playing a major
role in the anti Christian violence in Kandhamal. The national people’ tribunal
in its report pointed out ““The role of Hindutva organisations in
fuelling and orchestrating the carnage has been officially acknowledged. In
response to a question posed in the Legislative Assembly, the chief minister of
Orissa – Naveen Patnaik – candidly admitted, through a written response, that
it has been found from the investigation that “members of the RSS, VHP and
Bajrang Dal” were involved in the violence. The Chief Minister also
disclosed that police had arrested 85 people from the RSS, 321 members of the
VHP and 118 Bajrang Dal members in the attacks. He said that only 27
members from these groups were still in jail. This is just one of the
observations. As such most of the committees which investigated these acts of
violence opined in a similar fashion.
 |
| A Christian girl who was burned during religious violence in Orissa in 2008 Image Courtesy: Wikipedia |
It’s not a coincidence that
Sangama has formulated this ‘Sangh Parivar has no role in Kandhmal carnage
after his being backed by BJP in the Presidential election!
0 comments:
Post a Comment