Source:         www.compassdirect.org

Date:            December 31, 2007

Officers jail Christians following attack by Hindu extremists in Karnataka.

by Vishal Arora

NEW DELHI, December 31 (Compass Direct News) – In their campaign against Christians, Hindu extremists in India are increasingly relying on a key weapon: police officers.

Local police in Bangalore recently arrested and harassed five workers from the Indian Church of Christ after Hindu extremists attacked the Christians in the capital of Karnataka state. The attackers had beaten Shaijus Philip and four others on November 19 on the CMH Road in Bangalore’s Indira Nagar area as they were preaching Christ.

“One man holding a video camera slapped me on the face while focusing the camera on us, while others held us by our collars,” Philip told Compass. “A huge guy kept hitting and punching us, using abusive language against Christianity, the church and us. They caught hold of three more brothers who were there and called the police, falsely accusing us of various crimes.”

Police from the Indira Nagar police station arrested the five Christians while allowing the attackers to go free.

The Christians were then taken to the local magistrate, who remanded them to judicial custody. They remained in the Central Jail of Bangalore for five days.

“The Christians were arrested for hurting religious sentiments of Hindus,” said a sub-inspector of the Indira Nagar police station who refused to give his name. “We did file a case against their attackers as well.”

Asked if any of the attackers were arrested, the sub-inspector pleaded ignorance, saying investigations against both the Hindus and the Christians were underway and that he was not handling the case against the extremists.

One of the Christians, who requested anonymity, said they found the police “completely biased” against Christianity.

“They refused to listen to us or even let us read the complaint filed against us,” the Christian said. “They forced us to sign the complaint, threatening us with dire consequences if we demanded anything.”

He added that, as one of the officers taking them to jail watched a porn film on his mobile phone, “They also warned us that the police inside the jail would take away our valuables and money and may never return them to us.”

The guard at the jail did take some money from them, telling them that anyone else in his position would have taken much more. “He also ordered us to remove our trouser belts, which of course, would not be returned.”

The Christian also pointed out the corruption and poor conditions of the jail.

“Though we were tired from the trauma of torture, abuses and denial of our fundamental rights, we found it hard to sleep, as the floor and room were very cold besides being infested with mosquitoes,” he said. “We were asked to take the brooms from the washroom and sweep the floor, the staircases, corridors and the courtyards of two buildings housing many cells. When we finished sweeping, one cop beat Robert [one of the Christians] with a cane and told us to clean up all the marks on the walls created by people’s spit, and pick up all cigarette butts.”

The five inmates later were given dry rice in two plates as their breakfast, which they somehow swallowed along with tap water from the washroom.

Need for Reform

Rights activists have long been calling for a reform in the police system.

“The police, who are supposed to protect all citizens from criminal assaults, are often found to be conniving with the ruling government to organize religion-related violence or harass the victims hoping to get bribes,” said a representative of the Christian Legal Association (CLA).

The Supreme Court of India on September 22, 2006 ordered the government to order all states to reform their police administrations, but the court’s order has yet to be implemented.

One of the court directives stipulates that states should form security commissions to ensure that their officials do not exercise unwarranted influence or pressure on the police.

The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled along with the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) party in Karnataka till a state of emergency was declared by the state governor last month due to a tussle between the two entities. In the wake of the strained relationship between the two parties, the JD(S) reportedly said that the BJP is trying to turn Karnataka into a religiously tense place.

Acquiescent Police

Police in India are governed by the Police Act of 1861, established after uprisings against British rule in 1857. Ostensibly the intent of the Act was to preserve the British Empire by curbing the freedom struggle through police power.

The Act was drafted to keep the police department under the control of the empire, as officers were mainly Indians whom the British did not trust. Thus the police force was imbued with a mandate to suppress people more than protect them.

“The only difference in the police administration today is that the police are now under the complete control of the state governments,” the CLA representative told Compass.

The state home ministry alone controls all the matters related to transfer, suspension, or promotion of high police officials, without having to consult others.

“Home ministers take full advantage of this fact, as there is no fixed tenure for police chiefs,” the CLA representative said. “If the top cops refuse to obey the orders of their bosses, they will be promptly transferred.”

Some Indian states, including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Delhi, and Madhya Pradesh, have enacted special state laws, but they are modeled almost exactly after the 1861 Act.

According to the Indian Constitution, law and order is a responsibility of state governments.

“Especially the states ruled by the BJP have a poor record of defending victims of Christian persecution,” said the CLA source.

END

SIDEBAR

India Briefs: Recent Incidents of Persecution

by Nirmala Carvalho

Gujarat, December 31 (Compass Direct News) – A mob of around 25 people allied with the Hindu extremist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) on December 19 attacked a play staged by Christians, cutting off a finger of one priest and seriously injuring the back and hands of another. In all, 13 people – including the two priests, a nun, educational institution staff members and students in Kawant Taluka, near Vadodara, Gujarat state – were attacked. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India reported that at about 8 p.m., priests Monty Rodrigues and Damien Sladen and students from Don Bosco School in Kawant were staging a social awareness play at Baidiya village when right-wing fundamentalists disrupted it and threatened to kill them. Striking a small boy and hurling insults against Christianity before 400 to 500 audience members, the extremist demanded that the group leave the village and threatened to pour gasoline onto them and set them on fire. The Christians stopped the play and left. On the way back, however, the same group assaulted them. Fr. Sladen and another school staff member, Ramesh Durairaj, along with two male students, were seriously injured and rushed to Baroda for medical treatment. Fr. Rodrigues escaped and returned to Kawant, where he alerted police. Officers asked the 52-year-old Fr. Rodrigues to sign a complaint, but the priest said in a statement that it “was not according to the real facts that we had told them. They wrote according to their own whims and fancies. Therefore we refused to sign.” After receiving legal aid, the priest signed a more factual complaint and authorities registered a case against 25 extremists.

Karnataka – Hindu extremists on December 12 disrupted a prayer meeting, attacked a pastor and filed false charges of forcible conversion against the church leader in Virajpet town, Kodagu district, in Karnataka. Dr. Sajan K. George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) said that Bangalore-based pastor John Samuel of the Assembly of God church was praying with independent pastor Baby Varghese at the house of an aged widow identified only as Gangamma at about 8:30 a.m. A group of Hindu extremists led by K.M. Girish broke into Gangamma’s house and began hollering curses. “The extremists pushed Gangamma to the wall and grabbed the Bible from Samuel’s hand and tore up pages of the Bible,” George said. “The extremists repeatedly slapped, punched and kicked Samuel and Varghese for nearly 45 minutes, after which the extremists dragged Samuel and Varghese to the Virajpet rural police station and filed false charges of forced conversion.” After GCIC intervention, Samuel and Varghese were released on bail the next morning.

Maharashtra – Nearly 40 Hindu extremists, some associated with the Bajrang Dal, on December 9 attacked a prayer meeting of the Jal Jeevan Ministry at Christ Academy School grounds in Koparkhairne, Navi Mumbai, Maharashstra. Around 400 Christians were present on the final day of the four-day prayer meeting led by Trevor Louis, the report stated. Abraham Mathai, vice chairperson of the Maharashtra Minorities Commission, told Compass that at around 8:15 p.m. the extremists pelted the school with stones, and shortly after about 20 of them barged into the compound with bamboo and hockey sticks. “They abused the Christians in foul language and began beating them up,” Mathai said. “Simultaneously, outside the school grounds, around 20 extremists smashed the windscreens and windowpanes of 11 parked cars. Four persons who were injured were taken to the hospital.” Police arrested 12 persons for the attack, he added.