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Christian Council calls upon the Election Commission |
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Written by Dr. John Dayal
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Tuesday, 22 January 2002 |
(The following is the text of the statement issued by Dr John Dayal, Secretary General, of the All India Christian Council after a One-day meeting of Christian leaders of Uttar Pradesh in Lucknow. The meeting was held on the eve of the third anniversary of the brutal burning alive of Dr Graham Stuart Staines and his sons Timothy and Phillip by a mob led by Dara Singh in Orissa)
The Christian community in the country is shocked and repulsed at the announcement by a political group that that they will field Dara Singh as their candidate from an Uttar Pradesh Assembly constituency in Ghaziabad, near the national capital of New Delhi
The All India Christian Council is also disturbed that though newspapers, national and international Television channels have widely reported this, there has been utter silence on the part of national leaders of the ruling political parties. Nor has the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and others expressed their indignation at this brazen move to pervert and vitiate the secular character of the democratic electoral process.
This is a political obscenity that should move every decent citizen in the entire nation and provoke a sense of repugnance. The self styled Krantikari Manuvadi Morcha with its avowed Hindutva agenda has taken pride in the fact that Dara Singh, a Bajrang Dal activisist burnt alive the Staines, who was working for the welfare of leprosy patients, his children, Catholic priest Father Arul Doss and trader Mujibur Rahman. The aggressive and threatening statements and actions of this action should invite the strictest action from the government.
The Christian Council calls upon the Election Commission and the Chief Election Commissioner to impose a ban on the Morcha and on all similar organisations that are threatening the minorities and spreading communalism specially in the elections to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.
The Christian Council has already expressed its deep apprehensions at the activities of the Sangh Parivar in various parts of the country, and specially in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Orissa and Jharkhand. It was strict action by the Madhya Pradesh government that prevented any untoward incident during the anti-Christian rally organised last week in the Adivasi-majority district of Jhabua by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh wing Seva Bharati. The top RSS leadership continued to mouth the most vicious and malicious propaganda against the Christian community. It was a message of coercion and threat they sent out by holding the meeting in Jhabua, scene of the infamous mass rape of Catholic nuns three years ago.
In recent months, more than 3.5 lakh trishuls, machined as weapons and not as innocuous religious symbols, have been distributed in the Rajasthan area. In Madhya Pradesh, the Sangh has announced the setting up of 3.5 lakh Devals, or family temples. These areas are already penetrated by Sangh's Shishu mandirs manned by RSS cadres. These schools follow a curricula and textual material, which is outside the pail of any academic and public scrutiny, blatantly rewrites history, and poisons young minds.
Taken together, these actions constitute a well thought out strategy to polarize and communalise the tribal society in the state of Madhya Pradesh and also in the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Orissa, Jharkand and Chhatisgarh to serve the political agenda of the Sangh Parivar. The Adivasis have strongly objected to these efforts to obliterate their culture and their identity.
The Council has called upon the governments of the concerned states, as also on the Central government to ensure that this insidious conspiracy against the Adivasi identity is not allowed to succeed.
(Released to the Press by Dr. John Dayal and Mr.Sam Paul for favour of publication)
Christian Council protests Sangh Parivar's inflammatory and blasphemous statement against Jesus Christ
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Last Updated ( Friday, 03 August 2007 )
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