Method in the madness

The four bomb blasts that took place in various parts of the country on Thursday, all of them targeting churches, seem to suggest a well t...

The four bomb blasts that took place in various parts of the country on Thursday, all of them targeting churches, seem to suggest a well thought out plan to create panic among Christians. Before the madness gets out of hand, it needs to be addressed at the highest levels of the government and the administration. To term them as isolated incidents perpetrated by faceless “miscreants”, as the authorities have tended to maintain thus far, is the best way to do nothing. Each apathetic response of this kind leads to fresh violence.

In Andhra Pradesh, for instance, the explosions that tore through two churches in Ongole and Tadepalligudem were the fifth such attacks over the last 18 days. Northern India, especially the states of UP and Haryana, have seen Christian priests and nuns being assaulted and even bludgeoned to death, with Brother George Kuzhikandan’s ghastly murder on the premises of a school on the outskirts of Mathura being the latest addition to this gory list. Again, the local police and district administration here have tended to dismiss them as cases of personal enmity or dacoity and have proved unable to stem the rising spiral of violence.

Over the last six months, there have been 35-odd attacks on Christian institutions and individuals. Yet neither the Centre nor the various state governments concerned have displayed the necessary urgency in their responses. The spontaneous slogans raised by an angry group against Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu in the wake of the latest bomb blasts are significant. The enraged protestors wanted the TDP to break off its links with the Central government. The perception then seems to be that the BJP-led government is either unable or unwilling to put an end to attacks of this kind and the tardy and pitifully inadequate responses from chief ministers like Ram Prakash Gupta and Keshubhai Patel have only gone to confirm this. It is a perception that Prime Minister Vajpayee should take due note of, if his government’s credentials of ensuring stability and communal harmony are not to be badly tarnished.

Chandrababu Naidu clearly realises the danger of letting the situation slide into anarchy and has displayed commendable energy in trying to mollify the traumatised Christian community in his state. Not only did he personally visit the areas where the blasts took place, braving angry demonstrators in the process, he announced a relief package to the injured and promised that his government would rebuild the damaged churches. But his assurances that the TDP government would take stern action against the people behind the attack may not inspire much confidence, given his conspicuous inability to prevent attacks of this kind in a state that has been largely free of communal rancour. But that’s just the point. Today, no region of the country can claim to be free of the virus of hatred. On Thursday, Goa where churches have been part of the landscape for centuries witnessed a bomb attack on a church, as did neighbouring Karnataka. This is reality and it demands an emphatic response from all Indians.