Forgiveness is due only if you repent
Ram Puniyani on why presidential hopeful Sangma has the wrong approach on Kandhamal
A WEEK AGO, presidential candidate PA Sangma, when asked about the Sangh Parivar's alleged role in the Kandhamal killings and pastor Graham Staines' murder, said that there is no proof to suggest their (Sangh-BJP) involvement in these killings. He was also asked about the anti-Christian stance of the Sangh Parivar and Jayalalithaa. One does not know how much track he is keeping of the happenings in the Adivasi areas, where anti-Christian violence has come up as a major phenomenon. Be it the Adivasi areas of Gujarat, MP, Maharashtra or Odisha, the Christians in the Adivasi areas and the priests and nuns working in these areas have been victims of violence unleashed in these areas. Also one cannot forget Jayalalithaa's anti-conversion bill and its withdrawal in due course.
The most heinous of these crimes was the burning alive of pastor Graham Staines on the night of 23 January 1999 in Keonjhar in Manoharpur district of Odisha. Pastor Staines and his two innocent sons Timothy and Philip (aged 10 and six respectively) were sleeping in a jeep after a function in a village. They were burnt alive by Dara Singh of the Bajrang Dal. Right the next day the then home minister, Lal Krishna Advani, said that the Bajrang Dal could not have done it, he knows them very well. Meanwhile a team of three central ministers — Murli Manohar Joshi, George Fernandez and Naveen Patnaik — visited Keonjhar and proclaimed that international forces have done the cruel act of burning as they want to destabilise the NDA government.
Advani appointed the Wadhwa Commission which confirmed that the murder was done by Dara Singh alias Ravinder Kumar Pal who had instigated the local people. Dara Singh propagated that the pastor is anti-Hindu, is converting people to Christianity and his work for leprosy patients is just a cover. Dara Singh was active in the local programmes organised by Bajrang Dal and Sangh Parivar associates. The Wadhwa Commission did point out that there was no statistical significant increase in Christian population in the area where Pastor Stains was working. In 1991, it was 0.299 percent and in 1999 it became 0.307 percent. The murder of Staines was part of the phenomenon of anti- Christian violence which has been unleashed for the last two decades.
A major role in this is played by the anti-Christian propaganda done by the Sangh Parivar, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and Bajrang Dal. BJP's local leaders are also fairly active in these anti-Christian activities. There is a great amount of overlap in the functions of these, the progeny of the RSS. In Odisha, many a BJP MLA-leaders were very active in the process.
The anti-Christian violence has been investigated by various citizens' tribunals and committees. An Indian People's Tribunal headed by Justice (Retd) KK Usha in 2006 and the last one the National People's tribunal (2010) headed by Justice AP Shah went into the Kandhamal violence. All reports showed that it is the hate propaganda unleashed by these communal organisations which is the base of violence in Adivasi areas. The interesting observation is that for the same type of activities, Christian missionaries in cities are not attacked by these groups. Moreover, many a times the children of the practitioners of this politics do study in the schools run by Christian missionaries in the cities.
In case of Kandhmal, the tribunal named many a BJP leaders as playing a major role. The Tribunal report said, 'The role of Hindutva organisations in fuelling and orchestrating the carnage has been officially acknowledged.
IN RESPONSE to a question posed in the Legislative Assembly, the Chief Minister of Odisha — Naveen Patnaik — candidly admitted, through a written response, that it has been found from the investigation that members of the RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal were involved in the violence. The Chief Minister also disclosed that police had arrested 85 people from the RSS, 321 members of the VHP and 118 Bajrang Dal members. He said that only 27 members from these groups were still in jail.' This is just one of the observations. Most of the committees which investigated the violence gave a similar opinion.
Sangma invoked the principle of forgiveness as the essence of Christianity. That's what Gladys Staines, the widow of the slain pastor, did. But forgiveness comes when the culprits express remorse for their acts and seek pardon. Not if the perpetrators are emboldened and become politically stronger after the act of violence, and generally blame the victims for the violence. It is no coincidence that Sangma has become so forgiving after the BJP backed him in the presidential poll.
Ram Puniyani is a communal harmony activist based in Mumbai.
ram.puniyani@gmail.com
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