India: Attacks on Christians, Civil Society Appeals to Uphold Communal Harmony but No Action from Authorities

As news of Christians being harassed from various parts of India comes trickling in the days following Christmas and leading up to the New Year, people from all societies have expressed their concern but concrete action is seen.

A civic group from Karnataka state, "Citizens' Forum for Mangalore Development," has petitioned Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai seeking action from the government 'to uphold the (Indian) Constitution and to ensure the maintenance of communal harmony' in the light of the 'spurt in communal hate crimes and communal mob violence in Karnataka.'

The memorandum named certain right wing organisations, stating that 'no concerted action has been taken against them'.

'Over the past month, we have seen a heightened increase in the attacks on churches and prayer halls by right wing organisations, and the failure of the state to prevent or respond to the same.'

An Appeal

An appeal by the co-founders of USA based 'Hindus for Human rights' carried by the Scroll.in called for Hindus' to recognise that we possess far more power than others to put a brake on India's run-away majoritarianism. '

'Contrary to what we are repeatedly told, minority rights are not special privileges that are denied to the majority community. It is a necessary mechanism under constitutional majority rule to ensure that everyone is treated as equals in the eyes of the law,' wrote Raju Rajagopal and Sunita Viswanath.

'Hindus are huge beneficiaries of constitutionally guaranteed minority rights in countries around the world. Is it not a travesty that many of them are joining hands with Hindu nationalists in India to attack minority rights as appeasement? In fact, they stated that our failure to use that power will not be forgiven by history.

Unfortunate, says Haryana Chief Minister

Meanwhile, on New year Eve, days after a Christmas congregation at a primary school in Pataudi in Haryana's Gurugram was disrupted by a Hindu group, claiming that the gathering was an attempt at religious conversion, state chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that the "unfortunate" incident should not have happened.

"It should not have happened," he said. "It is not right to interrupt any function. They [Hindutva supremacists] should either object before or after the function. If there are any apprehensions, they can be resolved. People of all groups should sit and talk. There are peace committees as well."

The chief minister was addressing a press conference at Haryana Bhawan in New Delhi.

Another Haryana Incident

Vishwa Hindu Parishad members also struck in Haryana's Ganaur village on December 24 and disrupted Christmas Eve celebrations at the Ambedkar Hall in the village. "About 300 of my men followed me to this hall," said Narendra Kumar, who heads the Ganaur division of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

In videos of the disruption, accessed by a news site,  Narendra Kumar and his cohort can be seen heckling Christian worshippers: "make the children read the Gita and other Hindu scriptures," "our ancestors have sacrificed so much for this cause", "we had a generation that did not convert despite the pressure of the Mughals."

The mob can be seen asking worshippers if they had permission for the event at all. They also ask them to show identity cards and take photos of the organisers so "they can take action against them."

But Narendra Kumar is upset that many of the worshippers had "run away" by the time he reached the hall. "We got there, called the police and locked the people who were remaining inside," he said. "I also took photos and videos of Christian lockets and bibles that were kept inside."

Twenty-three-year-old Akshay Masih, a resident of Ganaur village who was at the Christmas celebration, said, "This has never happened before."

 "They also had sticks with them and kept threatening us," said Masih. "We tried to tell them we had permission, but they did not listen. Eventually, we had to shut the programme down."

The station house officer at Ganaur said no one from the Christian community had filed a complaint about the disruption. Sub-inspector Rajkumar, also attached to the same police station, said he had gone to the spot for an "investigation" that same day.

"We went there and explained to the men [from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad procession] that a Christmas celebration was happening there; it happens every year in the same place," he claimed. "When we explained that, they left."

Narendra Kumar, however, said the police asked them to disperse after a couple of hours. "We were assured that they would conduct an investigation into what was happening," he said. "Now, we will wait to see if they do it or not."

Carollers attacked in Madhya Pradesh

On Christmas eve in Madhya Pradesh's Jhabua district, eight carol singers were waylaid by a group of alleged Bajrang Dal members. They passed through Parnaali, a forested area in Meghnagar tehsil when men attacked them with sticks and axes.

"Out of nowhere, these men started pelting stones at us," said Pastor Naikhya Garhwal, who was one of the carol singers told a news website.

"Two people fell off their bikes," he continued. "We were hit on our arms and backs with stones. When we fell off our bikes, more [attackers] came out and hit us with an axe. One of us, Ramesh, was hit directly on his head and his scalp was torn apart. My son, Sem, was hit so hard there was a big bump on his head. He developed serious internal injuries."

Both were still in hospital nearly a week after the incident, reported Scroll.in on Friday.

Pangla Vasunia, one of the carol singers, filed a complaint and a first information report was registered at Kakanwani police station on December 25 against two accused identified by name and other unknown people. The accused have been booked for endangering the life of others, voluntarily causing hurt, criminal intimidation and other offenses.

"But it has been a week now, no one has been arrested," said Auxiliary Bishop Paul Mania, who heads the Protestant Shalom Church in Jhabua.

According to Garhwal, Bajrang Dal workers continue to threaten Christians in Meghnagar, warning they would shut down church services if they pressed on with their complaint.

Reports from Bihar

In Dhiwar village, part of the Barh area of Bihar's Patna district, the attacks started on December 19. Five Bajrang Dal workers went to the rented apartment of a pastor, Deepak Chaudhary and beat him up.

"They came into my home, slapped me several times, abused me and the four other people with me" said Chaudhary, whose flatmate, Vikas Mandal, converted to Christianity four years ago. "They accused us of doing illegal religious conversions, took some papers and left."

 He claimed that his church members had been living in fear, barely leaving their homes – the Bajrang Dal workers had allegedly threatened to beat up any Christian men they could find.

Chaudhary filed a complaint at the National Thermal Power Corporation police station, but Amardeep Kumar, the station house officer, claimed he had found no evidence of violence. "All these men did on December 19 was stand outside the home and shout that forced religious conversion was happening," he told a news website.

Chaudhary said his landlord, acting under pressure, asked him to vacate the rented apartment, which he was forced to do on December 30. He felt it is futile to go back to the police as they were "on the side of the accused."

Police officer Kumar claimed Chaudhary and others had not gone to the police station when summoned. He added that all the incidents from December 19 had been reported to the Barh sub-divisional magistrate's office and that they planned to book six of those involved under Section 107 of the Criminal Procedure Code. That included Chaudhary and Vikas and four men affiliated to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad who had reportedly gone to the police station.

On December 25, Christmas prayers were arranged under heavy security in the village. That set off a fresh backlash.

On the afternoon of December 26, about 20 women in the same church for Sunday worship were met with a mob of over 100 people, said Sister Jyoti, leading the prayers. "They took over all sides of the church premises and started shouting Jai Sri Ram slogans."

Sister Jyoti said the police sent security. "They asked us to ignore the stone pelting, abuses and slogans and continue to pray," she said. "They asked us not to take any videos so we were not able to capture how bad the abuses were."

A complaint filed by Chaudhary at the NTPC police station states that the repeated disruption had hurt their religious sentiments. Still, no first information report has been registered yet.

The four from the Hindutva groups all live in Dhiwar. One is Vikram Patel, who goes by Vicky Hindu, and is president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Barh.

"It is good that Deepak has packed up and left," he said, referring to pastor Chaudhary. Since the pastor's flatmate, Vikas Mandal, was from the village, Patel claimed: "The elders are trying to make him understand that he should come back (to the Hindu fold)."

Patel told journalists that the Christians of Dhiwar attempted forced conversions and propagated anti-government views. "The BJP government at the Centre," he said, "is a Hinduwadi government" – pro-Hindu. To counter the government,  Christians "tell people that the central government is not doing anything for them, only working for Adani and Ambani."

Patel criticized the state  Bihar government, led by Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United), for not introducing a law against conversions as other BJP states did. "We want a law, we have been asking for it," he said. "The present  Bihar government won't have the guts to introduce a law like Uttar Pradesh. Because this place is filled with secularism."