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memorandum submitted by the Indian Christian comunity to the
nation's Parliament
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>From John Dayal
The following is the text of the memorandum submitted by the Indian
Christian comunity to the nation's Parliament on 4th December 1998
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UNITED CHRISTIAN FORUM FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
(Representing the CBCI, NCCI and EFI Churches)
CBCI Centre, 1 Ashoka Place , New Delhi 110001 Phone : 3344470, Fax :
3715146
4 December 1998
A Memorandum to the Parliament of India
The Hon'ble Prime Minister of India
Greetings of Peace from the Christian Community of India
We are writing this Memorandum to you with a deep sense of pain and
anguish at the recent spurt of violence inflicted on the Christian
Community. Since January 1998, there has been more violence against the
Christian community than in the fifty years of India's independence.
Nuns have been raped, priests executed, Bibles burnt, Churches
demolished, educational institutions destroyed and religious personnel
harassed. Even the dead body of a Christian was not allowed to rest in
peace. A corpse was dug out from a graveyard in Gujarat. This State
alone has counted more than forty cases of violent atrocities in less
than six months of 1998.
As you know, other communities have also experienced such violence. The
Sikhs faced it for more than a decade. The Muslims continue to
experience it in several parts of the country. Dalits and tribals
undergo not only physical but also institutional violence.
We are all aware of the forces behind these acts of violence. The
National Commission for Minorities, various Commissions of Enquiry and
the Director General of Police of Gujarat have identified the
organisations and their associates who are spreading the venom of
communalism to further their vested interests. Wherever Christian
communities and others are involved at the grassroots with developmental
work and education among the marginalised, the violence is more vicious.
The state has failed to do its duty in protecting the life, dignity and
property of the victims. At many places, it seems as if the Central and
State governments have tacitly supported the communal groups. How is it
otherwise that the State Governments have not taken any action against
the virulent and anti-national statements of the these organisations in
which they have preached hatred, fanaticism and violence. The erstwhile
government of Rajasthan did not act against those threatened the ethnic
and religious cleansing of Christians in Banswara district of Rajasthan.
Such incidents of violence are a result of a mindset which threatens the
unity and integrity of the country. Ours is a country of plurality. The
Constitution guarantees freedom of Religion, language and culture. It is
now for all of us to unite in the spirit of the Constitution to fight
against the communal forces that are bent on dividing the country. Let
us work unitedly in the spirit of the Constitution to build a nation of
equality, liberty and fraternity. Parliament has a crucial role in this.
We therefore demand that:
1. Parliament seek from the Government of India and of the State
governments a White Paper with full details of the violence inflicted on
the Christian community, specially in 1998
2. Parliament, the Government of India, the Prime Minister and the Home
minister unequivocally denounce Communalism and the Communal
Organisations which have been identified for their role in the violence
against Minorities, and specially for the violence on the Christian
Community.
3. The Centre and State governments give categorical assurances for the
Safety, Security and Honour of all Minorities, their Clergy and
Religious personnel, their Institutions and their Laity
4. State governments take urgent steps to investigate the cases of
violence against the Christian community, and to take steps under the
law of the land to bring the guilty to book without fear or favour, and
without bias. Police and administration cease their attempts to pervert
the investigations by seeking to implicate Christians, and stop
persecuting and terrorising innocent people, specially in villages and
rural areas.
5. The Government denounce all attempts to foist on the country a
philosophy of One nation, One People One Culture which mitigates against
the Plural Heritage of India. And that Government take urgent steps to
counter the poisonous and virulent propaganda by Communal Organisations
and their Mouthpieces which construct a Mythology of Hate, and which
projects the Minorities as aliens in their own homeland. The government
also immediately end the blatant bias in the Official media of
Doordarshan and All India Radio.
6. Parliament be vigilant against attempts to subvert Human Resource
Development, Education, History and Culture, and to take steps to
nurture the Plural Heritage of Religious, Cultural and Linguistic
diversity and richness of this Great Nation.
7. Parliament, the Centre and the State governments take urgent steps to
end the Overt and Covert bias, and to ensure Equity, Fairplay and
Justice, in the implementation of laws, specially those dealing with
Land and Buildings, Regulations for Educational Institutions, rules on
grant of Visas and Passports, and other Acts which are often used as
instruments of discrimination.
8. Parliament Enact Legislation to give Statutory Powers to the National
Commission for Minorities that are required to make it into an effective
watchdog of the Rights of the Minorities in India.
9. Parliament ensure that the National Minorities Development Finance
Corporation is made an effective instrument of Economic development of
all minorities.
10. And, Most Importantly, Parliament Enact urgently Legislation to
give to Dalit Christians the Constitutional Rights that were taken away
from them in 1950. Only this will end the sorry saga of violence against
the Christian Community, and restore the Secular Guarantees of Freedom
of Faith enshrined in the Constitution of India.
Parliament, we are sure, will not disappoint the Minorities, and
particularly the Christian Community of India
In solidarity,
Your fellow citizens of the Christian Community
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