ASIA/INDIA - Report on anti-Christian violence presented and endorsed by the Federal Government

New Delhi (Agenzia Fides) – The Report by Judge Michael Saldanha, which establishes the truth about the anti-Christian violence which occurred in the State of Karnataka in 2008, was officially presented to three Federal Government Ministers in India. Fides' sources report that the Minister of the Interior, P. Chidambaram, the Minister for Minority Affairs, Salman Khurshid and the Minister for Justice, Veerappa Moily, have welcomed the report, agreeing with its conclusions and pledging their support for future actions.
There are three important Departments in the Government of the Indian Union which have officially taken a position in the affair where two different Reports came up against each other: the first was prepared by Judge B. K. Somasekhara, commissioned by the State Government of Karnataka, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The text entirely denies the responsibility of Hindu fundamentalist groups in the anti-Christian violence in 2008. Christians, but also many Hindu citizens consider it “full of prejudices and lies” and call it “a guided report” by the politicians, who wanted to absolve the radical Hindu groups (see Fides 1/02/2011). The second report, commissioned by a group of NGOs like the Catholic-Christian Secular Forum (CSF) and publicly supported by the Catholic Church in India, was assigned to Judge Michael Saldanha, who, after a field survey with more than 3,000 witnesses, re-established the truth, bringing to light unequivocal evidence that the violence was planned and carried out by Hindu extremist groups, who acted under the protection of the State Government (see Fides 24/02/2011).
Joseph Dias, President of the CSF, who submitted the report to the Ministers expressed satisfaction and optimism to Fides: “We are very pleased by the meeting with representatives of the Federal Government, who supported our campaign for truth. We showed videos and testimonies, overwhelming evidence. The Ministers assured the intervention by the Government. We should meet again in the coming days to submit a concrete plan of action to the executive. We are optimistic about the success of this campaign, which is getting support from Christians and other minorities, but also by many intellectuals and Hindu religious leaders who deplore the extremist groups.” The point is, notes Dias, that “the Hindu extremists in Karnataka have immense power: they are in the Government; they have infiltrated the judicial system, the bureaucracy and the police. So it is impossible to have justice in this State.”
This is why the activists demand that the Government officially rejects Judge Somasekhara's Report, and that the more than 330 cases of false accusations against Christians recorded in the courts of Karnataka be erased, that the churches and schools damaged in 2008 be given adequate compensation, and that the impunity comes to end so that the perpetrators may be investigated and prosecuted.
The CSF also presented the Saldanha Report to the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, who has taken it into “serious consideration” and intends to involve human rights organisations with stature and international coverage in the campaign. In the wave of anti-Christian violence in 2008, 113 attacks in 29 districts were recorded. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 28/2/2011)