By NNN-PTI,
London : Flaying the violence in Orissa and six other states, a leading British daily said the Indian government must stop attacks on Christians.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should swiftly deploy an effective federal police force in Orissa state, the daily said on Saturday.
“Instigators should be arrested and curfews imposed and India should resist this attempt to destroy the very basis of its polity and prosperity: its democracy and diversity. Without tolerance both count for little,” The Times said.
For months, armed thugs in one state of eastern India have been burning churches, rampaging through villages and subjecting terrified Christians to forcible conversion to Hinduism, it said.
The violence is concentrated in Orissa, a poor state on the eastern seaboard where Christian missionaries have long been active. But in recent weeks the attacks have spread, the editorial said.
Since August 24, according to the Roman Catholic Church in India, 300 Christian villages have been destroyed in Orissa, 4,400 houses burnt, 50,000 people made homeless and 59 Christians killed and 18,000 injured, it added.
“Churches and schools have been destroyed and in one particularly brutal attack a nun was allegedly raped. Churches have also been attacked in six other states, largely in the south but even in Delhi Christians have been threatened,” the report said.
It conceded that a ban on the RSS and its offshoots would be unworkable as the “Hindutva” movement is now so strong that it could easily sidestep restrictions.