Attacks on Christians — Sangma tears into BJP defence of Sangh Parivar

It wouldn’t have been possible for these incidents to spiral without the backing of political parties and complicity of State machinery. “The Government of India has a definite role to play,” he said.

Seeking to debunk Malhotra’s claim that Christian missionaries were resorting to forcible conversions, Sangma wanted to know in which part of thecountry this was being done. Referring to another argument popular in BJP circles that the entire North-East had been “captured” by Christians, he said that in only three out of the “seven sisters” were Christians in the majority.

In Arunachal Pradesh, they constituted only about 10 per cent of the population, Assam 3.3 per cent, Tripura 1.6 per cent and Manipur 34 per cent, he said. And in fact, the population of Christians in the country was actually going down, not up, he added.

Sangma said that attacks against Christians had been reported from 13 states across the country. “So how can the Prime Minister say that the attacks are isolated?” he asked.

Considering the geographical spread of these incidents and their severity, there was little doubt that the minorities were losing their faith in the Government, Sangma said.

Malhotra, who spoke earlier, accused the Opposition of raising the issue of atrocities on minorities whenever they were bereft of any potent topic. Allegations against the Sangh Parivar were concocted and politically motivated, he said. He quoted profusely from the findings of the National Commission for Minorities to assert that the recent attacks on Christians in Uttar Pradesh had no communal overtones, only to draw retorts from Congress members led by Margaret Alva that these reports were “inspired” ones.

Malhotra pointed out that the Congress government in Karnataka had found that those involved in the attacks on churches belonged to Deendar Anjuman and not the Sangh Parivar. Similarly, the Wadhwa Committee on the killings of Christian missionaries in Orissa had exonerated the Sangh Privar of any role in the crimes.

Contending that India was the safest place for the minorities, he said that if this had not been true, how come lakhs of Bangladeshis were staying on illegally in the country.