Fundamentalist Hindus harass and threaten Catholics in India (CNA)

[bobzills]

Maoists claimed responsibility for killing the Hindu Brahmin who had been responsible for forced reconversion of Dalit Christians to Hinduism for many years. This happened in an area which has been long known for violence against Christians by militant Hindu groups. Maoists have nothing to do with Christianity. .

What is being given here is really not the true picture. It is very misleading indeed. Let’s look at what is known:
Take a look at the following report:
“Hindu leader Swami Laxmananand Saraswati lying in hospital in Cuttack after being attacked by Christian marauders at Brahmanaigaon in Kandhamal District on 24 December, 2007.”
newstodaynet.com/printer.php?id=3557
The murder of Swami Lakshmanananda and four others occurred in August 2008. On 6 October 2008, the Orissa police announced they arrested two Christian tribal’s in connection with the murder of Swami.
“The police have arrested Pradesh Kumar Das, an employee of the World Vision, a Christian Charity, from Khadagpur while escaping from the district at Buguda. In another drive, two other persons Vikram Digal and William Digal have been arrested from the house of Lal Digal, a local militant Christian, from Nuasahi at Gunjibadi, Nuagaan. They have admitted to having joined a group of 28 other assailants.”
dailypioneer.com/19104/Widespread-anger-in-Kandhamal-over-killings.html
I am opposed to violence, but I think it is only fair to be truthful and fair to both sides in this dispute.

 

[S_J_Thaikattil]

What is being given here is really not the true picture. It is very misleading indeed. Let’s look at what is known:
Take a look at the following report:
“Hindu leader Swami Laxmananand Saraswati lying in hospital in Cuttack after being attacked by Christian marauders at Brahmanaigaon in Kandhamal District on 24 December, 2007.”
newstodaynet.com/printer.php?id=3557
The murder of Swami Lakshmanananda and four others occurred in August 2008. On 6 October 2008, the Orissa police announced they arrested two Christian tribal’s in connection with the murder of Swami.
“The police have arrested Pradesh Kumar Das, an employee of the World Vision, a Christian Charity, from Khadagpur while escaping from the district at Buguda. In another drive, two other persons Vikram Digal and William Digal have been arrested from the house of Lal Digal, a local militant Christian, from Nuasahi at Gunjibadi, Nuagaan. They have admitted to having joined a group of 28 other assailants.”
dailypioneer.com/19104/Widespread-anger-in-Kandhamal-over-killings.html
I am opposed to violence, but I think it is only fair to be truthful and fair to both sides in this dispute.

 

[S_J_Thaikattil]

We killed VHP seer: Maoists

Maoists have once again claimed responsibility for the killing of octogenarian VHP leader Swami Laxmananand Saraswati. He was gunned down along with four of his disciples at Jalesapata ashram in Kandhamal district on August 23, sparking off widespread communal violence in Orissa, killing at least 35 people so far.

A top Maoist leader while interacting with a select group of reporters from his hideout in a deep jungle in Orissa on Saturday claimed that he had ordered the killing of the VHP leader. “We ordered the death penalty for him,” Sabyasachi Panda, the Maoist leader who is heading the Vamsadhara Dalam of the banned outfit said.

The Maoist leader proved elusive for police for the last three decades and is believed to have masterminded the sensational rebel attacks on Nayagarh police establishments in February last in which 13 policemen were killed.
Mr Panda said his group had left letters at the site of the killing owning responsibility but the Orissa government had suppressed the evidence.

“The state government made it look like Christian groups are responsible for the attack,” he said. “The VHP leader was instigating violence against minorities particularly Christians in the area. Hence we decided to eliminate him,” Mr Panda, also secretary of Orissa state committee of CPI(Maoist) said.

“Hindu organisations such as VHP are targeting minorities particularly Christians , attacking them, killing them and burning their homes. They are playing riot politics. Swami Laxmanand was an important leader of VHP. We ordered his killing” , he said.

economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/We_killed_VHP_seer_Maoists/articleshow/3564146.cms

 

[S_J_Thaikattil]

Swami Agnivesh demands ban on VHP and Bajrang Dal
Bhubaneswar | Senin, Sep 1 2008 IST

Social activist and World Council of Arya Samaj President Swami Agnivesh today demanded a complete ban on the activities of VHP and Bajrang Dal in the country.

‘‘There is enough evidence to put a ban on these two organisations,’’ Swami Agnivesh told newspersons here while expressing concern over the communal violence in Orissa allegedly unleashed by the members of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal.

‘‘Bajrang Dal in fact is emerging as a ‘terrorist’ organisation in the country,’’ he remarked.

Swami Agnivesh along with some other social activists had arrived here to visit the riot-hit areas of Kandhamal but were denied permission by the state government. Reacting to the state government’s ban on their entry into the trouble-torn Kandhamal, Swami Agnivesh said it was an irony that the state government had allowed the VHP leaders to visit Kandhamal but prevented the social activists to visit the area.

He rejected the judicial inquiry ordered by the government into the Kandhamal violence and demanded that the matter be either probed by the CBI or by a Supreme Court judge.

Former Bombay High Court judge justice H Suresh who also accompanied Swami Agnivesh, alleged that there had been a total constitutional breakdown in Kandhamal. He also opposed the judicial inquiry stating that it would never serve the purpose. Several social activists, led by Swami Agnivesh, met Orissa Governor M C Bhandare and requested him to visit the affected areas to make an independent assessment of the situation.

They also urged the Governor to apprise the Centre of the findings of his visit, recommend CBI probe into the killing of Swami Laxmanand Saraswati and the violence that followed and initiate proceedings so that the National Human Rights Commission would commence an investigation forthwith.

The social activists, who included among others Ms Meenakshi Ganguly from Asia Division Human Rights Watch, National Integration Council member Shabnam Hasmi, National Dalit Movement for Justice general secretary Dr.Sirivella Prasad and AIDMAM National Convener Vimal Thorat, urged the state government to arrest all those responsible for attack on the Christians, launch comprehensive relief and rescue operation to bring the displaced to safer places, involve NGOs and Civil Society in relief and rescue operation, punish the officials who failed in their job to protect the lives of the people and deploy adequate central para military forces to contain the violence.

news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/India/20080901/1042561.html

 

[S_J_Thaikattil]

Swami Avignesh:

Our movement, which is gaining much strength, is Sarva Dharma Sansad, which means Parliament of all the religions. It includes members from all the many religions present in India: Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Baha’I, Zoarastrian, Jains, and others. We have determined that we will not be a goody goody, all talk interfaith movement, but will focus on action on the main social issues facing India. We have agreed on a seven point plan of action. The points are:

1. Bring an end to the caste system in all the many manifestations which are still present
2. Work for communal harmony
3. Work for gender equality, starting with female foeticide but going beyond that to the root causes, starting with the practice of dowry
4. Fighting against alcohol, drugs, and tobacco
5. Bringing reason to religion
6. Fighting corruption
7. Fighting against inhuman exploitation, including animal slaughter.

---

Swami Agnivesh

Swami Agnivesh is an Indian social activist and leader. He was born into an orthodox Hindu family in 1939, and studied law and business management degrees, then taught in Calcutta. In 1968 he became a full-time worker, in the State of Haryana, of the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reformist movement, and two years later became a sanyasi, renouncing worldly possessions, as Swami Agnivesh. He co-founded a political party, the Arya Sabha, to work for political change, founded on Arya Samaj principles, spelt out in a book published in 1974, Vaidik Samajvad (Vedic Socialism). Rejection of the materialism of both capitalism and communism in favor of “social spirituality” is at the core of his beliefs and work. Agnivesh has had many brushes with authority in India, especially in the period leading up to 1977, but also served for a short time in the Haryana State government. He has long focused on the issue of bonded labor, founding the Bandhua Mukti Morcha (BMM, the Bonded Labour Liberation Front) in 1981. BMM is both an advocacy organization and directly supports children and adults trapped in bondage. Agnivesh was Chairperson of the UN Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery and has won important international prizes for his work. Other causes he supports are an end to female infanticide, action against gender discrimination, fighting corruption, supporting work to address HIV/AIDS, and interfaith understanding.

 

[bobzills]

Is it not true that a Christian mob beat up the Hindu leader on Christmas eve, and then in August 2008 he was murdered by an assassination squad? And is it true or not that the " police have arrested Pradesh Kumar Das, an employee of the World Vision, a Christian Charity, from Khadagpur while escaping from the district at Buguda. In another drive, two other persons Vikram Digal and William Digal have been arrested from the house of Lal Digal, a local militant Christian, from Nuasahi at Gunjibadi, Nuagaan. They have admitted to having joined a group of 28 other assailants".?

 

[ultraswamy]

Thanks for attempting to present a fair view of the scene in Orissa.

However bad things were, and despite simmering tensions that continue… there has been no overt violence in Orissa for around a 45-60 days now. The CNA report however, is dated Feb 4th, and it mentions a unilateral disruption of the peace by the Hindutva-groups, and should not be linked with the recent Orissa-riots per say. It is a fresh incident of violence and it has nothing to do with any mob-reaction to any killings whatsoever.

Furthermore…
Yes, the Orissa riots happened because the Hindutva-groups galvanized their sections of the population to persecute Christians because of the alleged murder of a prominent Hindu swami.

Yes, The Maoists did claim responsibility of the killing.

Yes, by virtue of the fact that the districts in question have a large(r) Christian population than the norm, by default, the Maoists-members from these districts also have a large number of Christian members, influencing Maoist decisions.

But did you know- That the swami was previously named in the Maoist’s hit-list and the threat to his life -from Maoist’s- was known for a long time, without any mention of Christians. The RSS in its mouthpiece-publication, The Organiser, had identified districts in India with higher-than-normal increases in Christians, from the census, and had publicly announced their intention to concentrate their efforts on halting the function of Christian missionaries in the area. Also as an aside, in Orissa the majority of the evangelists are not Foreigners, and not even Indian’s from other states, but homegrown priests and pastors from Orissa, who move well within the community, and as locals are fully aware of the customs and mores… and are unlikely of using strong methods, like suggesting non-christians would go to hell.

In India, the investigation has not been concluded, and in popular-media too, the issue was covered and debated without any definitive result. It is likely that debate as to ‘Who started it?’ vis a vis the violence in Orissa can be debated till the cows come home.
Media-houses in India, like most other places, have leanings…and which side of the story they choose to cover means that for every article concerning a flammable issue, counter-articles by another source can usually be produced.

The point being missed is that the thread itself is not related to the original riots but a new un-provoked attack, and secondly, the original riots themselves went beyond being ‘just a mob-reaction’ to a swami’s-murder, but were a concerted and (probably, planned) attempt to incite the general-population, against a community that was claimed to not only have been responsible for the murder, but, it was suggested, posed a numerical, and economic risk to the majority community. The pattern in the destruction, in Christian villages even far away from the Swami’s sphere of influence and the targeting of not just Christian infrastructure but people’s homes, to uproot and displace Christians and change the demography of the region are proof of this.

 

[manveersihota]

Rome, Feb 4, 2009 / 03:41 am (CNA).- A number of Catholics from different parishes who were celebrating the priestly ordination of the first priest from the island of Majuli, in the Indian state of Assam, were harassed, threatened, and in some cases beaten, after participating in a Mass celebrated by Bishop Joseph Aind of Dibrugarh.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/catholicnewsagency/dailynews/~4/531390871

Full article…

this is a very sick act and i am ashamed that ppl can’t just be tolerant. i mean, sikh criticizing hindus, hindus criticizing sikhs, muslims criticizing hindus… india is a very unstable country now because of idiotic ppl that can’t be tolerant of each other. lets just pray this ends.

 

[bobzills]

Rome, Feb 4, 2009 / 03:41 am (CNA).- A number of Catholics from different parishes who were celebrating the priestly ordination of the first priest from the island of Majuli, in the Indian state of Assam, were harassed, threatened, and in some cases beaten, after participating in a Mass celebrated by Bishop Joseph Aind of Dibrugarh.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/catholicnewsagency/dailynews/~4/531390871

Full article…

Catholics are having their own problems in India:
"After 26 years as a nun, Jesme Raphael gave up her robes and walked out of the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel, the Catholic order in Kerala, India, that had been her home for three decades. Two years later, Raphael, now 53, has come out with her memoirs, Amen: An Autobiography of A Nun, cataloging lurid details of bullying, sexual abuse and homosexuality in the oldest Catholic women’s order in the idyllic coastal state in southern India. Shocking as it is, the book is only the latest in a long series of accusations and scandals afflicting the Catholic Church in the state with the largest population of Christians in India. "
time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1882176,00.html?xid=rss-topstories