Bangalore : Church Leaders Unitedly Reject Probe Report - Demand CBI Inquiry

From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bangalore, Feb 5: Leaders of Catholic and Christian Churches in Karnataka have announced their collective stand in unanimously rejecting the report of Justice B K Somashekar inquiry commission, which probed the series of attacks against Churches and prayer halls in September 2008 in Mangalore, Udupi, Bangalore and other districts, for its failure in addressing the terms of reference and do justice to the Christian community.

Bangalore Archbishop Rev Dr Bernard Moras, who is also the President of the Karnataka Region Catholic Bishops’ Council (KRCBC) and the Karnataka United Christian Forum for Human Rights, demanded an immediate CBI inquiry into the series of Church attacks and identification of the culprits and take necessary legal action.

Archbishop Bernard Moras said the grievances and demands of the Churches and Christian community would be placed before Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, Governor H R Bhardwaj and also Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, President Pratibha Patil, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and other Central leaders besides National Minorities and Human Rights Commissions.

Protests, Legal action under consideration

``We expect the Government to favourably and positively respond to our demand within a reasonable time,” he said pointing out that the Church leaders and representatives of Christian community would chalk out their next course of action, including staging protest rally or silent vigil throughout the State, and also taking legal recourse. He, however, declined to set any time limit but indicated that the community expected a positive response within a reasonable time.

``The report legitimizes the position of the State, especially after a large number of attacks on churches and its personnel during the last three years. Without a deliberate plan and cooperation of the authorities, it is difficult to believe that the organisations could have ever engaged in such high scale attacks and violence that were witnessed. But the report deliberately absolves the persons and organisations responsible for the attacks mentioned in the interim report.

Criticising the Commision for advocating a `Police State’ by asking the establishment of an intelligence wing, exclusive police station to deal with religious conflicts with specially trained personnel as though the present dispensation is incapable of handling such situations, he said such an institution could only weaken the country’s pluralism and diversity and give free hand to any authority to interfere.

Withdraw all cases against innocent youth

The Archbishop, in his news conference held in Bangalore on Saturday, urged the State Government to immediately withdraw all pending cases in connection with the church attacks filed against innocent Christian youth and also to pay adequate and just compensations to all individuals and institutions which were attacked and suffered great loss.

Pointing out that the Christian community was deeply affected when the state’s secular fabric was disturbed by the large number of attacks on churches from September 2008 that continued till 2009, the Archbishop said that he and other leaders of the Church and Christians had demanded a comprehensive probe by the CBI to bring out the truth and punish the culprits and reluctantly agreed to cooperate with the Commission appointed by the Government despite grave reservations. But the Commission has failed to bring out the truth on Church attacks and violence on innocent personnel of the Churches as also the various anti-minority statements made by the Commission to defame the Christians.

Bishop Aloysius Paul D’Souza of Mangalore Diocese, Bishop Vasanth Kumar of Church of South India, Bangalore and Moderator of CSI Churches in Karnataka, Bishop Samuel Mathew of the Believers’ Church, Karnataka, Rev V M Samuel, President FCCO, Vicar Generals of Bangalore Archdiocese Msgr S Jayanathan and C Francis and Rev Fr Faustine Lobo, PRO of KRCBC, attended the news conference and endorsed the joint statement issued by the Archbishop.

Communal and Divisive Report

Terming the Somashekara Commission report as ``highly communal,” the Archbishop said the Commission has sought to defame the community known for its services and contribution in the fields of education, health, social work and developmental sectors and for playing into the hands of the vested interests seeking to divide the State into ``majority” and ``minority” by attributing certain stereotypes to the community.

``The Report is undoubtedly divisive as it continues to look at the Christian community as ``the other” and states that some attacks were deliberate, well-planned communal antagonism with fundamentalism brewing since several years but failes to identify the persons and organisations behind them,” he said.

The Archbishop said the interim report of the Commission submitted to Government last year gave a ``ray of hope” when it identified various organisations of Sangh Parivar like Bajrang Dal, Sri Rama Sene, Vishwa Hindu Parishad for their involvement in the Church attacks and led the Christians to believe that the final report would be ``fair and just.” But the report has ``belied all expectations and has turned out to be propagandist,” he said pointing out that it had strengthened the stereotypes against Christians regarding indulging in mass conversions with foreign funds when the Christian population had come down to a mere 2.1 % and declining in every census. The Commission failed to mention even a single case of conversion.

``While upholding the right to ``practice, profess and propagate” religion in accordance with the tenets of our Constitution, we denounce the agenda of the vested interest groups to malign the community using conversion as a device. The report even recommends a special census of religions and institutions and maintenance of a record of the same with the Registrar of Religions, suitable legislation to prevent practices detrimental to the Hindu religion, that Christian places of worship should be brought under some legislation and stringent financial check and audit of pastors to control churches,” he said.

The commission, according to the Archbishop, seeks to create an impression – a word frequently used by Justice Somashekara – that Churches are anti-social institutions. Strongly condemning the insinuations and anti-Christian recommendations, the Archbishop said there was no need for special regulations to check specifically the activities of the Christian churches as long as there were laws in the country to check unlawful activities by any citizen.

Don’t try to divide the Christian Community

Bishop Aloysius Paul D’Souza of Mangalore Diocese, which witnessed the maximum number of attacks against Churches and incidents of vandalism, destruction and violence, regretted that the peaceful atmosphere and communal harmony that prevailed in Mangalore and Dakshina Kannada, Udupi districts was rudely shaken after the series of attacks against Churches in Mangalore from September 14, 2008, especially the attacks, vandalism and destruction in Adoration Monastery, Permannur Church and the wanton police action in Kulshekar and other Churches.

A fear psychosis and communal disharmony pervades in the entire coastal region. Policemen had brutally beaten up women, children and even religious sisters, he said lamenting that the Commission headed by a retired High Court judge had failed to identify the attackers even after almost three years of work. Instead of identifying the culprits as was indicated the interim report, the commission has given a clean chit to the perpetrators. While pointing out that Roman Catholics were not carrying out conversions, it seeks to imply that other Christian sects were guilty in a bid to drive a wedge among Christians. The commission or the Government did not involve a single lawyer from the Christian community and has now come out a totally partisan and biased report.

CSI Bishop Vasanth Kumar, who is also the moderator of CSI Karnataka, said it was wrong to accuse Christians of indulging in mass conversions. ``Professing our faith is part of our Christian identity. It is a mandate given by Jesus Christ to all Christians. However, conversion of faith is an act of God when individuals embrace faith after due conviction. It is left to the discretion of the individuals,” he said pointing out that the Commission cannot make sweeping remarks regarding flow of foreign funds for conversion activities because inflow of all foreign funds is strictly governed by various laws and monitored by various Central agencies. ``Some foreign agencies donate funds for specific social work, health or education projects. But hardly 2 % of foreign funds are received against the contributions by Indian Christians,” he said.

Christians cannot have `self-appointed pastors’

He said the commission’s characterization of ``self-appointed pastors” was totally wrong and smacked of ignorance as rigorous training and studies ranging from 7 to 14 years is required before anybody could become a priest or pastor among Catholics or Protestants.

FCCO President Rev V M Samuel said it was wrong to accuse the New Life sect of Christians of publishing derogatory literature regarding Hindu gods and goddesses, especially the Satyadarshini book in Telugu, and claimed that the leaders of New Life had categorically denied the allegations. ``We respect all religions and faiths. We don’t believe in insulting other religions.”

The Archbishop contended that even assuming some misguided Christian individuals were guilty of publishing derogatory literature, the law enforcement authorities can take deterrent actions as per law against such persons and can never be used as an excuse or justification for the attacks against Churches or Christians.

KRCBC PRO Fr Faustine Lobo said it was unfortunate that the Somashekara commission has turned ``victims into perpetratorsw, oppressed into oppressors and culprits as innocent persons.”