kc_07112000

CHRISTAIN PERSECUTION CONTINUES IN FASCIST INDIA.

Sikhs offer muscle and protection to the persecuted Indian Christians.

By Dr. Amarjit Singh

Spokesman Panthic Committee

Web-Address: http://www.khalistan-affairs.org, k_affairs@hotmail.com.

Address: 956-National Press Building, Washington DC, 20045, USA.

Tel:(202)-637-9210, Fax: (202)-637-9211.

Washington DC July 11, 2000: After having checked with our sources in India this column endorses the spine-chilling OUTLOOK news magazine's story; "Hawk Flock" which exposes the Christian persecution in India currently being orchestrated by the Swastika-worshipping supporters of the Brahmin-caste dominated BJP rulers in Delhi and condemns the acts of violence against a peace-loving Indian minority and offers full support to our brother Christians in India.

The OUTLOOK report is true and factual, but it is too polite. The fact of the matter is, that these fringe Swastika-worshipping fascist Hindu elements have the 'wink and a nod', nay endorsement, of the highest officials in the land from the federal Interior (Police) minister of India, L. K. Advani, down to the official incharge of the local police station and are being shielded by the state machinery controlled by the coalition government of BRAHMIN-FUNDAMENTALIST Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who himself, as everyone in India knows, when he was a young and fiery Jana Sangh leader made several speeches attacking conversion of the 'untouchables', the Dalits, the lowest Hindu caste which for thousands of years has lived without hope, and without escape, from the caste system of the Brahmin.

One can get an idea of the poison in the air in India from the June 26, 2000 issue of the OUTLOOK magazine, which quotes from the hate literature being circulated these days by these elements - Pracharaks of the Sangh Parivar - who are staunch supporters and 'Storm-troopers' of the HINDU-FUNDAMENTALIST BJP government in power in Delhi. These elements seem to have declared 'war' on the tiny, peace-loving, Christian community in India which makes up a little over 2% of India's total population of over a billion and numbers about the same as the muscular Sikh community captive in India. One booklet, according to the OUTLOOK, exhorts the 'Hindu' faithful to take up arms by declaring, a la Nazi Germany, that; "Aryans (read Hindus) have the right to slay anyone who is a danger to their lives. A war against Christian minority has been initiated by Arya-varta. The criminals must vacate Bharatmata (read India)". This provocative booklet is typical of the anti/Christian literature which is being circulated these days by jingoist Hindu groups who have been openly strutting around in India ever since the current HINDU-FUNDAMENTALIST BJP-led coalition government assumed power in Delhi and got a chance to misrule the 'world's so-called largest democracy' - India. Another pamphlet, quoted by OUTLOOK, claims that; "Conversion, slaughter, subjugation, rape are the tenets of Christianity." We always thought that the Christians have always offered the other cheek!

India's OUTLOOK magazine goes on to reveal that; "The spate of anti-Christian violence that began in 1997 in tribal pockets in Gujarat and Orissa now erupts in random acts across India. In June alone, a priest was killed in Mathura, a pastor's body found in Punjab and five bomb blasts rocked churches in Andhra, Karnataka and Goa. The onset of summer has been particularly uncomfortable for the Christian community. Through April and May there have been over 20 instances of ransacking and desecration of churches, assaults on nuns and priests and an overall attempt to intimidate the Christian community." The magazine has listed quite a few attacks on Christians in the period April-June, 2000 which shows a pattern of official connivance.

According to the OUTLOOK, on April 11, 2000 a murderous attack took place in Mathura on Father K. K. Thomas, principal of St. Theresa school, and two nuns. Six masked men assaulted nuns at the Convent in Jhansi on May 2, 2000. On May 6, 2000 Christians were attacked with sharp edged weapons in different areas of Gujarat state and bibles burnt. Eighty youth entered a Christian girl's hostel on May 9, 2000 in Nasik District and assaulted people there. On May 11, 2000 a Jesuit scholar was stabbed 18 miles from Bangalore. A few days later, on May 16 Father Anthonysamy was attacked near Gwalior. Five days later, on May 21, Christian prayer homes were torched in Orissa state's Kandhmal district. On the same day 25 Christian women were injured by a bomb blast at a prayer meeting in Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh. On June 7, 2000 Brother George Kuzhikandam was murdered in the Paulus Memorial School near Mathura. On June 8, 2000 a series of bomb explosions took place in three separate incidents in which Christian churches were targeted in Andhra Pradesh, in Wadi town, Karnataka and Vasco in South Goa. On June 10, 2000 Vijay Ekka who had witnessed the murder of Brother Kuzhikandum, three days earlier near Mathura, was murdered during 'interrogation' in the local police station. On June 12, 2000 an evangelist, Ashish Prabash, whose main ministry was showing the JESUS film, was stabbed to death in his house in Punjab state. The list goes on

The OUTLOOK magazine goes on to reveal that the; "Christians trace the violence against them to the BJP's ascent to power" in India. It quotes the national convenor of the United Christian Forum for Human Rights, John Dayal, as saying that; "the BJP and the Sangh parivar are using Christian-bashing to consolidate the Hindu vote-bank". Reverend Donald de Souza, deputy secretary of the Catholic Bishop's Conference of India (cbci) sees a sinister design and is quoted as telling OUTLOOK that; "The real targets are Muslims. But they know if they touch a mullah or desecrate a mosque there will be riots. Christians are a soft target. We never respond with violence. And today an atmosphere has been created where people who attack us (Christians) know they can get away with murder." Both Mr. John Dayal and Reverend Donald de Souza are very right.

Appeals by His Holiness the Pope to the Hindu-fundamentalist Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to protect and save the Indian Christians would have as much effect on that polite Swastika-worshipping 'ancient' fascist, and others of his ilk, as the appeal by the American Jews had on Nazi German dictator Hitler in the late 1930's. The solution lies not in appeals to a bunch of fascists but in an alliance between the docile Christian and the muscular Sikh communities in India as has been suggested in previous columns. India's Sikhs, organized around their Gurdwaras (Sikh Churches) and backed by the 3 million strong prosperous, and vociferous, Sikh diaspora, having suffered and lived through the 1984 anti/Sikh pogroms, are willing, able and ready to take on all comers, specially the knicker-clad storm troopers of the RSS and other thugs who are persecuting and murdering innocent Christians and other minorities in India today. Mr. John Dayal quoted in the paragraph above is right - why don't these RSS elements attack the Sikhs? History is a witness that fighting tyranny and protecting the oppressed and the persecuted is a religious duty every Sikh has taken seriously, and carried out valiantly, for over five centuries. We Sikhs are not about to let down the persecuted Christians. Let us stand together.

Khalistan Zindabad!!

Tell us your views on this article