President and Vice President serious about Christian persecution

Media Release from CSF

New Delhi, 06 May 2011: Justice Michael Saldanha, former judge of the Bombay and Karnataka High Court and Joseph Dias, general secretary of The Catholic-Christian Secular Forum (CSF)  met with Mrs. Pratibha Patil, the President and Mr. Mohammed Ansari, Vice President of India, presenting the community concerns, on persecution, which is exacerbating by day. Justice Saldanha has conducted an Independent Peoples’ Tribunal, in the aftermath of the anti-Christian attacks in Karnataka, which debunked the official Somashekara Commission Report, blaming the BJP State Government & Hindutva forces of being in league to unleash terror on minorities in the state. Joseph Dias, is general secretary of The CSF, a Mumbai-based national activist community NGO, that engages in advocacy campaigns, protecting the community interests and follows religious liberty of Indian Christians on a daily basis.

 

Mrs. Pratibha Patil

 

Mr. Mohammed Ansari

 

The President expressed her worry at the continued developments in Karnataka and Orissa, besides increasing violence against Christians in other states like MP, Gujarat, Chattisgarh, etc. She was specially appreciative of Justice Michael Saldanha’s scathing report, which indicted the real culprits behind the Karnataka attacks against the community. The President was shocked at the persecution, being documented by The CSF, giving almost an attack daily on Christians since the last over 4 years. Mrs. Patil said there was need to assure this microscopic minority community that India, being constitutionally a secular state, stood for freedom of faith for all religions. Hence, she asked to convey to Indian Christians that she was equally hurt on the persecution and would do what best could be done to remedy the situation.

 

 

The Vice President told Justice Saldanha that he would visit Karnataka and thanked him for almost single-handedly standing up to the might of the rabid communal forces, who are targeting Christians and other minorities in the state. Mr. Ansari said he was being briefed regularly by Governor Bharadwaj on the situation, including the deteriorating law and order in Karnataka, where some are ‘allowed’ to run riot and target even civil society. He said the road forward, would be that adopted by The CSF, which is to create awareness among the Christians first and unite them, besides interacting with secular minded agencies. The Vice President said that the world was fast becoming a global village and governments were concerned about their image on such issues internationally. He said such sensitizing initiatives from those affected would go a long way in arriving at solutions to benefit the victims in particular, the community and the country in general.