Advani orders prompt action in nuns’ case

Describing the act as `outrageous’, Advani instructed the Home Ministry to liaise with concerned state governments to ensure that the guilty were punished on `most immediate basis’, official sources said.

The delegation also brought to his notice some other cases of violence against Christians during the past three months in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal, Gujarat, Bihar and Maharashtra.

“In the face of such permeating and unrelenting violence, patently designed to coerce the Christians and hinder theirprofession of their faith and their social outreach programmes, the Christians in India are beginning, for the first time since independence, to feel threatened,” the delegation said in a memorandum to the Home Minister.

Meanwhile, the Nagaland Baptist Church council has sought Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s intervention for a stop to alleged atrocities on Christian communities of the country, organisation sources said.

NBCC general secretary Rev W Pongsing demanded in a memorandum that those involved in atrocities on Christian communities be booked under law and steps taken to ensure that the situation did not agravate.

He said the recent incidents against the Christians across the country had deeply hurt the community and alleged that such instances had increased since the coming to power of the BJP-led government at the Centre.

Earlier, alarmed at the continuing trend of atrocities against Christians, CPI(M) condemned the reported statement of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) “virtuallyjustifying” the spate of attacks on the Christian community and church institutions.

The politburo of the party termed as `shocking’ the VHP statement that “the assault on the missionaries in Jhabua and the violence and loot against them in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, was the direct result of conversion of Hindus to Christianity by the Christian priests”.

“It is shocking that the rape of nuns in Jhabua is being justified in this manner. Such rabid and inflammatory statements should be dealt with firmly”, the party said in a statement and demanded firm action against the VHP-Bajrang Dal for allegedly instigating attacks against the Christian community.