By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
New Delhi : True to its pre-election strategy, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has begun to show its true colour, sensing the national elections are not much away and some state assembly elections are round the corner.
In its 3-day national executive meeting held recently in New Delhi, BJP leaders delivered anti-Muslim and anti-Christian speeches. It has been observed in the past that their paranoia and bigotry increase when they think they can capture power at the Centre. Of late, their so-called secular allies have also given up all pretence of decency and commitment to secular ethos of the country.
At the national conclave, the BJP leaders made verbal assault on the minorities including Christians at the time when they are facing the worst ever physical violence in the recorded history of the country – at the hands of the members of the Sangh Parivar, said Dr. John Dayal, secretary general, All India Christian Council.
In a press statement, Dr Dayal said behind the verbal assault of the BJP and its Sangh Parivar lies a sinister conspiracy to de-nationalise Christians, after a similar attempt made from 1969 to 2002 to denationalize Muslims, which directly led to the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002.
The National Commission for Minorities has in its report identified the VHP as the culprit behind the anti-Christian violence in Orissa where a complacent or conniving police, bureaucratic and political apparatus watched in silence. In Chhatisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka and other states, there has again been a rash of anti- Christian violence. In 2007, there were close to 200 incidents of serious anti-Christian violence in Orissa. More than 100 churches and other Christian institutions were burnt down and looted, more than a thousand houses torched and several thousands Christians rendered homeless.
Blasting the minority appeasement propaganda by the Sangh Parivar, Dr Dayal said there has never been any appeasement of the minorities in India. This is evident from the conditions of Dalit Christians and Muslims. Dalit Christians and Muslims remain the poorest of the poor. This is a blot on the fair name of India. It exposes lopsided development that leaves marginalized groups even more marginalized. Farmer suicide, female foeticide and sale of children tell the whole story.
Dr Dayal called on the Central Government to act tough and fast to check attacks on Christians in Orissa. Otherwise, it is feared, the Sangh Parivar could be able to unleash a bloodbath against Christians.