(The Hindu
April 9, 2007)
CBI probe demanded
J. Venkatesan
During the Shabarai-Kumbh mela in 2005 Into distribution of CDs during Kumbh mela
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has admitted a petition seeking a direction to the Gujarat Government to take appropriate action against those who circulated compact discs (CDs) during the Shabarai-Kumbh mela in 2005 which allegedly suggested that Christians be attacked and beheaded in Gujarat.
A Bench of Justice A.K. Mathur and Justice Dalveer Bhandari, while admitting the petition, granted four weeks to the Centre to reply to the petition filed by an NGO, ANHAD, which also sought a CBI probe into the whole issue.
The court after witnessing the CD in February 2006 had issued notice to the Centre, Maharashtra and Gujarat governments and the Shabarai-Kumbh Mela Organising Committee seeking their response. Since the Union Government had not filed its reply, the Bench granted four weeks. The petitioner submitted that the Shabri Kumbh Samorah Aayojan Samiti had made a CD titled "Shri Shabri Kumbh 2006: Spirituality along with the wave of patriotism." "This CD incites Hindus against the Christian community in India and suggests that Christians be attacked and beheaded." He alleged that these CDs were widely circulated, distributed and openly sold in Gujarat, Maharashtra and in the north-eastern States. The petitioner said that "in this CD, the narrator, while talking about Hindu tradition, culture, makes constant references to the evil forces and foreign powers that are out to destroy the Hindu religion whilst simultaneously flashing pictures of churches and Cross on the screen as if to insinuate that the Christian community is the evil force and the foreign power that the Hindu community has to reckon with." Expressing concern , the petitioner said the Centre had the responsibility to ensure secularism in the country.
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