Playing the Christian card

Before the latest flare-up, about 40 incidents had taken place, almost all in tribal areas, with the sole exception of the burning of the New Testament in Rajkot. Churches and prayer houses were burnt, missionary schools attacked andChristians prevented from holding prayers in the Dangs and neighbouring Surat district. Mercifully, there was no loss of life.

Says Father Cedric Prakash, Coordinator of the United Christian Forum for Human Rights Gujarat: 8220;The Christian community has never been the target of such organised violence anywhere in India, not to talk of Gujarat.8221;

Former chief minister and Leader of the Opposition Amarsinh Chaudhary believes that the Sangh Parivar, which had earlier been targeting Muslims, has changed its strategy to consolidate the tribals of Gujarat behind the BJP by projecting Christians as 8220;the hate symbol8221;.

But political observers see a bigger design. Political analyst Dinesh Shukla points out that the latest incidents come close on the heels of the BJP defeat in the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi, and the emergence of Sonia Gandhi as a potential prime minister. 8220;In the elections, they projected her as a foreigner. They said she was only a widow, without any record ofservice to the country. Nothing worked. Now, they have brought out the Christian card,8221; he says.

Shukla 8212; as also Siddhartha Bhat, a retired professor of political science in Gujarat University 8212; feels what is happening in Gujarat is 8220;an experiment, with an eye on the next Lok Sabha elections8221;. Gujarat, he believes, has been chosen because it has a BJP government headed by an RSS man who would not, 8220;and has not8221;, checked the incidents.

The analysts also point out that the VHP has already decided to launch a campaign in 200 selected districts to bring Christian converts back into the Hindu fold.

Christian missionaries have been working in the tribal areas of Gujarat for more than 100 years. In fact, they were the first to start educational and medical institutions in these backward areas and today these institutions are considered the best in the region.

The Congress links with the tribals go back to 1928, when Mahatma Gandhi organised the Bardoli Satyagraha. Sardar Patel also took an activeinterest in the welfare of tribals. Gandhians like Amrut Lal Thakker, Indulal Yagnik and Jugatram Dave started Gandhian schools called 8220;Ashramshalas8221;. Since the 8217;70s, the Sangh Privar has been trying to make inroads into the tribal areas.

8220;Just as the Gandhian and Christian missionaries had done before, the Sangh Parivar also started with schools,8221; notes Achyut Yagnik, a social activist who has been working in tribal areas for long. Ramjibhai Rupera, a trustee of the Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad, says they too are now running children8217;s centres, known as Bal Sanskar Kendras, and organising sports, religious programmes, medical camps and mass weddings.

Sangh Parivar outfits have always accused missionaries of carrying out conversions by force and inducements. Since early last year, when the anti-Christian campaign was intensified, fears have been raised that conversions would spawn secessionist movements of the kind seen in Nagaland and Mizoram. The fact that a tribal after conversion to Christianity istreated as a tribal and remains entitled to benefits of reservation in jobs, education and elections was used to divide them. The latest addition to the chargesheet is that the Christians are sowing social discord.

Says Pravin Togadia, VHP general secretary: 8220;If there is a land dispute between two brothers, one of whom becomes Christian, the missionaries back him.8221;

However, even a section of the state BJP believes that unlike the anti-Muslim campaign, the anti-Christian campaign8217; would backfire on the party. One minister says the Muslim card clicked because of 8220;historical reasons8221; but that the country has no history of Hindu-Christian strife. Besides, he points out, the Christians are a microscopic minority, have remained peaceful and their institutions are popular among the middle classes, which played an important role in the BJP victory in the last elections.

After the adverse publicity in the media, the strong reactions of BJP allies at the Centre, and the remarks made by President K RNarayanan in his New Year address, the BJP did condemn the attacks. Top BJP and VHP leaders, including Union Home Minister L K Advani and Acharya Giriraj Kishore, have disowned the Hindu Jagran Manch, which is believed to have organised the rallies in the Dangs on Christmas Day.

Interestingly, however, Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel and state party president Rajendrasinh Rana have refrained from doing so. Instead, they have blamed the Christians for creating trouble by throwing stones on the Manch rally at Ahwa.

This was only to be expected. For, it is believed, more than anybody else, it is the Sangh Parivar members who have been organising Manch activities all along. In fact, the Manch does not seem to have any cadre of its own, and many of those booked for various offences are or were till recently office-bearers of the BJP, VHP and Bajrang Dal.

Rashtriya Janata Party leader and former chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela, who was himself once a BJP leader, links the intensifiedanti-Christian campaign to the power struggle on in the Sangh Parivar. 8220;Its real targets are Keshubhai Patel in the state and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpyee at the Centre,8221; he says. A BJP functionary admits there is 8220;a communication gap8221; between the BJP and VHP in the state. Worse, there appears to be 8220;no one in command8221; in Delhi, he says, recalling that the BJP leadership had effectively intervened to stop attacks on Christians after the visit of the Minorities Commission to Gujarat last August.

But RSS ideologue Suryakant Acharya insists the Dangs incidents indicate the 8220;resurgence of Hindutva8221; among tribals. Acharya, who is Deputy Chairman of the Gujarat State Planning Commission, is credited with strengthening the BJP in the tribal belt of Gujarat, where he organised the party from 1991 to 1995.