India
Christians protest Hindu attacks: Will Obama say
something
during his visit to India in November?
Pak Tribune, Pakistan
Will Obama Ask
India to End Hindu Terror Against Christians?
"The matter of concern for human rights organizations is that Indian authorities, instead of giving rights to minorities, have put their leaderships behind bars. ... When he visits India next month, will the president of the lone superpower ask India to end Hindu extremist terrorism, or will he give preference to making economic gains at the expense of the murder of people in his own religious community?"
U.S. President Barack Obama
and first lady Michelle will visit India in early November. Obama conveyed the
news to Foreign Minister S.M.
Krishna at a reception at the Museum
of Natural History in New York. Obama added that his wife Michelle is
excited about the trip. For obvious reasons, India's leadership waits anxiously
to welcome the global power's president. But victims of the Hindu’s holocaust
are waiting to see if the global power's head of state has the courage to ask
Indian leadership to end Hindutve
terror [Hindu nationalist terror]. Obama's curiosity has its own reasons: it's his
wife’s first visit to the so-called secular state. Responsible American staff
should arrange factual briefings for them, so as to reflect the genuine Indian
face.
The U.S. couple must be told
that so far, Indian troops have killed over 3.2 to 3.4 million Sikhs; more than
120,000 Muslims of the occupied "Internationally Disputed Areas of Jammu
and Kashmir"; more than 500,000 Muslims; more than 312,500 Christians;
over 15,000 Tamils; more than 15,000 civilians of the Seven Sisters of Assam;
hundreds of thousand Dalits
[equivalent to the lowest cast in India]; hundreds thousand of Adivasis or Moolnivasis.
These Sikhs, Muslims, non-Hindus and non-Brahmins minorities were killed because
they were neither Brahmin
nor Hindus. Since August 15, 1947, the Brahmin-Hindu politician/lawmakers and
the armed forces have needed one another to protect their own skins,.
The matter of concern for human
rights monitoring organizations is that Indian authorities, instead of giving
rights to minorities, have put their leaderships behind bars. A Maoist’s leader,
with the promise of anonymity, e-mailed me to say that he's been in jail for
years and is thrashed and tortured on a regular basis. September 2010 was the
first time he had ever had access to the Internet. He hasn't been allowed to end
or receive text messages for three months. He went on to say that just like all
Kashmiries, his phone has been barred from this type of contact.
Parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
[National Patriotism Organization] and Shiv Sena [Army of Shivaji], under
the leadership Hindu radicals like Ball Thakara have always motivated and supported
extremist Hindus against Christians, Sikhs and Muslims.
It's worth mentioning here
that for a number of years, the Indian government, with the help of Hindu
terrorists, have been deliberately attempting the diminishing of minority
populations in Karnataka,
Kashmir, Gujarat, Amritsar, Manipur and Orissa states. On October 13, Compass Direct
News mentioned that Chintamaniin the Kolar district of Karnataka state, which
is known for turning on Christians, police suspect two alleged Hindu
nationalists beat four pastors and struck one of their wives in the stomach,
killing her unborn child. The report suggests that the suspects were indirectly
supported by local authorities and police. According to the Global Council of Indian Christians, the
attack took place at a gathering at a private Christian school to celebrate the
birth of Mahatma Gandhi on Oct. 2.
During the concluding prayer,
about 40 people barged into New Public School and began selectively beating
pastors and Kejiya Fernandes, the wife of Pastor Fernandes. The attack
continued despite the arrival of Chintamani police. When it ended at noon, instead
of arresting the attackers, police took custody of the Christians. On top of
all this, the poor Christians were denied medical attention. The injured Christians
were released at 7:30 pm - and only after Kejiya Fernandes began to bleed
profusely. According to Global Council of Indian Christians, she and her
husband later obtained hospital treatment, where she lost her fourth-moth old
fetus.
The attack was reportedly
carried out to avenge an alleged insult said to have been made to the Hindu
gods at the Christian gathering. According to Father Cedric Prakash, who
visited the area and the Christian victims this week, the accused Hindus filed
their own police complaint. But the complaint against the Christians was for
“deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feeling or any
class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.” (Section 295-a), and
strangely, Section 324 for, “voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or
means,” among other charges. The Christians weren't arrested and a court
granted them bail.
According to the report, Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi was friendly with Christian missionaries during British
rule and taught religious tolerance. The acclaimed Hindu, India’s greatest
political and spiritual leader, was killed in 1948 by Nathuram Godse, who was
allegedly influenced by the extremist Hindu ideology of Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh. It's rather alarming that for the last three years, Karnataka has been regarded
as the hub of Christian persecution in India. Of the over 152 attacks on India Christians
in 2009, 86 were reported in Karnataka, according to the Evangelical Fellowship of India.
This year as well, Karnataka is forecast to have the most anti-Christian
attacks. According to the Global Council of Indian Christians, at least 47
attacks on Christians have been reported in the state as of Sept. 26.
Persecution of Christians in Karnataka sharply rose after anti-Christian mayhem
in eastern Orissa state in August 2008, when Maoists killed a leader of the
Hindu group Vishwa
Hindu Parishad, which Hindu extremists wrongly blamed on local Christians.
Attacks in Orissa’s Kandhamal
District killed over 100 people and left 4,640 houses, 252 churches and 13
educational institutions burned to the ground. While Hindu nationalists had
targeted Karnataka for close to two decades, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya
Janata Party became India's governing party for the first time in history in
May 2008. Prior to that, for 20 months, the BJP had ruled in coalition with a
local secular party, the Janata Dal.
It's believed that the BJP victory
led tothe violence in Orissa, which is now
ruled by a coalition that includes the BJP, a party comprised of emboldened
Hindu extremists who now enjoy greater impunity due to its incumbency. Despite
the high incidence of persecution of minorities in Karnataka, BJP leaders deny
it, alleging that complaints are a result of a political conspiracy mounted by
opposition parties. There are a little over a million Christians in Karnataka,
where the total population is more than 52 million, mostly Hindus.
Thus, in this connection, we
can say that the worries of minorities are rising by the day and continuing gross
violation of human rights in wider India is further aggravating the situation.
Interestingly, during the administration of the British Empire in the19th to
20th centuries, no Sikh and/or Muslim Lieutenant-Generals were ever court
marshaled. This is a reflection that only the "Brahmins-Hindus" in
the Indian armed forces are corrupt and criminal. The state of minorities in
India is so pathetic that they aren't even allowed to openly perform their
religious obligations. Local news channels have been banned in Kashmir and surrounding
affected areas. The overall situation in Maoist, Nagaland, Orissa and Kashmir
are similarly dreadful.
Indian Chief of Army Staff, General V.K. Singh,
has failed to hinder his troops to stop the brutality being committed against
minorities. He's too busy threatening and interfering in the internal affairs
of neighboring countries. In this regard, on October 15, 2010, he said that
China and Pakistan are major irritants to India's security and he discussed the
possibility of a nuclear war scenario, saying that both nations are
"jingoistic" and "unwise." While rejecting the comments, Pakistan
Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said in a statement: "The government
of Pakistan takes serious exception to the reported statement of the Indian
Army chief and his perception of a threat from Pakistan. War under a nuclear
scenario is uncalled for. These are gratuitous comments about Pakistan's
internal affairs."
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
In fact, General Singh's
sprinkling venom around about China and Pakistan is by design, due to the upcoming
Obama visit. He is also trying to divert international attention, particularly on
the part of the Americans, from the brutality of Hindu extremists against
Christians. He is probably aware that Global Council of Indian Christians and
others minorities plan to protest Indian brutality on President Obama's arrival.
The Global Council of Indian
Christians is also asking the Obama Administration to pressure India to halt
Hindu extremism against Christians. But the question arises: will the president
of the lone superpower ask India to end Hindutva Terror, or will he give
preference to making economic gains at the expense of the murder of people in
his own religious community?
[Editor's Note: In regard to India, the U.S. State Department 2009 Human Rights Report says in part: Several human rights and religious freedom NGOs continued to express concern about sporadic anti-Christian violence in some states governed by the BJP and claimed some attackers had affiliations with the Hindu extremist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Muslims in some Hindu-dominated areas continued to experience discrimination and reported poor government response to their concerns, which limited their access to work, residency, and education.]
