Frontline, 12 February 2011
Attacks justified
SECULAR and Christian organisations in Karnataka have voiced strong protest against the report of the Justice B.K. Somasekhara Commission submitted to the government on January 28. They have done so on the basis of the highlights of the report put up on the commission's website and also the parts of the report made available selectively to the media. The entire report has not been released.
The one-man commission consisting of Justice Somasekhara, former judge in the High Courts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, was set up in September 2008 to “inquire into the sequence of events and circumstances leading to attack on the places of worship and incidents thereafter, which occurred during the month of September 2008 in Dakshina Kannada and other districts of Karnataka”.
Its terms of reference also included identifying the persons and organisations responsible for such incidents and ascertaining whether there was any negligence or lapses on the part of the district administrations in dealing with the situation.
The September 2008 incidents, mainly in Dakshina Kannada, were the first in a series of actions by fringe groups of the Hindu Right since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in Karnataka that year.
The attacks on churches, according to media reports then, looked planned and they evoked fear and insecurity in the Christian community in the State. Groups in the Sangh Parivar such as the Bajrang Dal claimed responsibility for them (“Now, Karnataka”, Frontline, October 10, 2008). Even the State Home Minister, Dr V.S. Acharya, had justified the violence by saying that there were reports of “forced conversions”.
Given the evidence produced by affected persons, including priests and nuns, and the audacity of the lumpen members of the Sangh Parivar in accepting their role in the attacks, the commission's job seemed fairly simple. The report, however, has come as a disappointment, as it has refused to recognise the government's culpability although it acknowledges that “misguided fundamentalist miscreants... have mistakenly presumed that they would be protected by the party in power with their policies at the relevant time”.
The highlights of the report show that the one-man commission has not done its best to fulfil its mandate. There are contradictions in the report. On the fundamental question as to who was responsible for the attacks, the commission says: “There is no basis to the apprehension of Christian petitioners that the Politicians, BJP, mainstream Sangha Parivar and State Government directly or indirectly, are involved in the attacks [ sic].”
It further states that the Bajrang Dal and the Hindu Jagran Vedike (HJV) were responsible for attacks on 12 churches across the State. There is no doubt that the Bajrang Dal and the HJV are Sangh Parivar organisations, and Mahendra Kumar, the State president of the Bajrang Dal, is known to hobnob with BJP politicians, especially during the annual Datta Jayanthi celebration.
While concluding that the impression that police officers of the district administration colluded with the attackers is false, the report says that the police action against Christian protesters in several parts of the State was justified. It also indicts several police officers for failing in their duty to protect churches but refuses to connect the work of the police with the government. It is learnt from advocates present at the hearing that an application to summon the Home Minister to explain the failure of the police was ignored.
By and large, the commission has accepted the idea that religious conversions were the main reason for the attacks. According to a lawyers' forum that took part in the proceedings, the commission's work was an eyewash, with “pastors and priests who had suffered attacks being repeatedly and aggressively questioned as to their alleged conversion activities, almost making it seem that the attacks were justified”. By contrast, the report has paid little attention to the activists of the Sangh Parivar.
The Archbishop of Bangalore, in a press release, stated: “After going through the highlights of the final report of Justice Somashekara Commission, the entire Christian Community is disappointed and felt the report is very unfair. It also feels the Commission has very badly let down the Christian community.”
Fr Amborse Pinto, Principal of St Joseph's College, Bangalore, pointed out that there were no attacks on the Christian community before the BJP came to power. “Given the fact that it was a government's commission, the report is no surprise. The commission has done the biddings of its masters by wasting the resources of the state,” he said.
Vikhar Ahmed Sayeed
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