Statement and letter by citizens groups in UK against Hindutva violence in Orissa

Dear Friends,

We are attaching two documents which we hope you can read and respond to soon. The first is a statement from South Asia Solidarity Group and South Asian Alliance about the atrocities against Christians being perpetrated by the Sangh Parivar in
Orissa.

The second is a letter of demands, please address it appropriately and email it to the Indian President, the Indian Prime Minister, the Minister of Home Affairs, the Chief Minister of Orissa State, and the High Commissioner of India in the UK
at the email addresses below.

Amrit Wilson
South Asia Solidarity Group


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President:
Her Excellency Smt. Pratibha Patil
Office of the President
New Delhi
India
Email: To=presidentofindia@rb.nic.in
presssecy@alpha.nic.in
Pressecy@Sansad.nic.in

=================

Prime Minister:
His Excellency Dr. Manmohan Singh
Office of the Prime Minister
New Delhi,
India
http://pmindia.nic.in/write.htm

=================

Hon'ble Mr. Navin Patnaik
Chief Minister
State Government of Orissa
Bhubaneswar
cmo@ori.nic.in

==================
Hon'ble Mr. Shivraj V. Patil
websitemhaweb@nic.in

========================
Mr. Kamalesh Sharma
High Commissioner
High Commission of India
London
hc.london@mea.gov.in


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#1.

Stop the violence against Christians in Orissa! Bring the guilty to justice! Dismantle the structures of fear and intimidation!

South Asia Solidarity Group and South Asian Alliance condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the violence perpetrated against Christians in Orissa

On 23rd December Adivasi organisations affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Parivar (the family of organisations of the Hindu right) marched through Barakhama village, Kandhamal, a district in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, screaming “Stop Christianity, Kill Christians”; on 24th December despite police promises to control the situation, Sangh Parivar organisations shut down shops and, at night, cut power and telephone lines and felled trees to build road blocks; on 25th December, Christmas day, a mob of 4000 people, many of them middle-class Hindus from outside the immediate area, armed with trishuls, swords, rods - and also some guns – rampaged through the area, breaking down the doors of Churches, attacking congregations at prayer, burning down a total of seven Churches, looting and torching Christian houses, convents, hostels, and other institutions, injuring hundreds and killing at least eleven people. Sporadic violence by Sangh Parivar organisations continues till today.

Hindutva’s growing infrastructure of fear and intimidation

These premeditated attacks on Christians were planned, orchestrated and perpetrated by the same Hindutva organisations, the BJP, RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal and their affiliates, which were responsible for the genocidal attacks on Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. They are part of an established agenda of setting up a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu state) – encapsulated in the slogan - Hindu Rashtra, Pehle kasai, Phir Isai,(First Muslims, then Christians).

They are also a culmination of the violence which has been simmering in Orissa since a coalition government led by the BJP came to power in 1998. 1999 saw the gruesome murder by Bajrang Dal activists of the Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons. This was followed by other sporadic attacks and murders. An investigation into religious communalism in Orissa by the Indian People's Tribunal, led by Justice K.K. Usha in 2006 noted the “spread of communal organizations in Orissa, which has been accompanied by a series of small and large events and some riots…such violations are utilized to generate the threat and reality of greater violence, and build the infrastructure of fear and intimidation.” The Sangh Parivar has now 30-40 major organisations and a massive base of a few million in Orissa.

Orissa a Gujarat in the making?

In Gujarat the BJP state government presided over the genocidal violence against Muslims; in Orissa the state government an alliance of the BJP and BJD(Biju Janta Dal) has, according to a fact-finding team led by John Dayal of the Indian National Integration Council, condoned if not actually supported “the activities of criminals and political activists spreading bigotry....” while the police and administration chose to stand by while Christians and their institutions were attacked and ‘grave violence and heinous crime’ committed.

In Gujarat, sections of the Adivasi populations were mobilised to attack Muslims. In Orissa they have been used by the RSS to attack Christians. In these areas of Orissa and Gujarat, Adivasi communities are extremely poor; although under the Tribal Forest Rights Act they have access to forest land and water, in reality the law is ignored. Hindutva organisations have used these injustices to mobilise Adivasis against other minority communities. Organisations like the Vanavasi (Forest dwellers) Kalyan Samiti which was used in Gujarat to siphon money from Britain for use by the Hindutva organisations during the anti-Muslim attacks in 2002 are now involved in the attacks on Christians in Orissa.

The Sangh Parivar’s communal mythology on Christians is that they are involved in large scale conversions of Hindus to Christianity, while this would of course be entirely legal and within the framework of the Indian Constitution, the reality is very different. While the Christian population (only 2.3% in Orissa today) is declining, it is the Sangh Parivar who are involved in aggressive proselytization -converting Adivasis to Hinduism. All along the tribal belt, from Dangs in Gujarat in the West to Orissa in the East, Hindu Samgams, or congregations, are being held, and thousands of Adivasis threatened and intimidated into attending.

In Kandhamal in the first week of 2008, 700 Christians fled their homes and took refuge in government-run camps. According to John Dayal, they are those who were able to flee, “children, women, old and sick, who could not flee for their lives, are [still in their villages] in great danger..”

The attacks in Orissa have come immediately after the BJP’s electoral victory in Gujarat, and the RSS is openly proclaiming that after Gujarat 2002, Orissa is the next laboratory of Hindutva.

The killers and their henchmen must be prosecuted and the structures of the Sangh Parivar exposed and dismantled.

The state government of Orissa has instituted a Judicial Review Commission to investigate the riots. Given the state government’s failure to protect Christians and its implicit collusion with Hindutva, such an investigation is not likely to bring the guilty to justice.

We demand an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the events in Kandhamal and neighbouring districts of Orissa.

We urge the state government to provide protection, food and medical supplies to those who have fled to refugee camps and also to those who have been unable to flee and are still in their villages.

We call upon the Indian government to set up an independent inquiry into the Sangh Parivar’s infrastructure of fear, intimidation and violence in Orissa.

We call upon the British government to investigate the international arms of the Sangh Parivar organisations in Britain who support and fund the criminal activities of Hindutva groups in India

o o o


#2.

To,
ADDRESSEE

In the last week of December 2007 Adivasi organisations affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) marched and rampaged through Kandhamal district in Orissa, screaming “Stop Christianity, Kill Christians”, armed with trishuls, swords, rods - and also some guns – breaking down the doors of Churches, attacking congregations at prayer, burning down a total of seven Churches, looting and torching Christian houses, convents, hostels, and other institutions, injuring hundreds and killing at least eleven people.

These premeditated attacks on Christians were planned, orchestrated and perpetrated by the same Hindutva organisations, the RSS, BJP, VHP, Bajrang Dal and their affiliates, which were responsible for the genocidal attacks on Muslims in Gujarat in 2002.

The attacks in Orissa have come immediately after the BJP’s electoral victory in Gujarat, and the RSS is openly proclaiming that after Gujarat 2002, Orissa is the next laboratory of Hindutva.

The killers and their henchmen must be prosecuted and the structures of the Sangh Parivar exposed and dismantled.

The state government of Orissa has instituted a Judicial Review Commission to investigate the riots. Given the state government’s failure to protect Christians and its implicit collusion with Hindutva, such an investigation is not likely to bring the guilty to justice.

We demand an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the events in Kandhamal and neighbouring districts of Orissa.

We urge the state government to provide proper compensation, protection, food and medical supplies to those who have fled to refugee camps and also to those who have been unable to flee and are still in their villages.

We call upon the Indian government to set up an independent inquiry into the Sangh Parivar’s infrastructure of fear, intimidation and violence in Orissa.


sincerely,