Tue, 16/03/2010 - 9:15pm Nine get jail, one acquitted in Kandhamal riots case

16th March2010

Bhubaneswar: Nine people were convicted and sentenced to four years in jail by a trial court on Tuesday for their role in the riots in Orissa's Kandhamal district in 2008. One man was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

Nine people were convicted and sentenced to a four-year jail term and fined Rs.5,500 each in a case of arson during Kandhamal riots. One man named Hrushi Pradhan has been acquitted in the absence of evidence,' P.K. Patra, the public prosecutor, informed.

52 acquitted in Kandhamal riot cases

The Fast Track Court-II Judge C.R. Das convicted the nine people of Salesaru village for torching the house of Balusan Digal and other villagers on Aug 25, 2008.

Tue, 16/03/2010 - 11:35am Pastor detained in Mangalore

Mangalore : Pastor M S Valsalan and a believer were detained in Sullia Police Station in Mangalore district on the basis of false allegation made by the Bajaran Dal and Sangha Parivar activists on 15th March 2010.
On 15th March 2010 around 7.00 pm Pastor M S Valsalan and his family visited one of their believer’s house for prayer residing at Borgunta village, Sullia Taluk in Mangalore district. After the prayer at 8.30 pm the families were having dinner together. All of sudden a group of 15-20 Sangh Parivar and Bajarang Dal activists forcefully barged into the house and abused them of forceful conversion. The radicals locked the pastor and his family in the house till 10.00 pm and called Sullia Police Station. Immediately the Inspector accompanied by other police officials came to the spot and took the pastor, his family and the other believer to Sullia Police Station for enquiry. Around 11.30 pm pastor’s wife, two children and the believer were sent home and only the Pastor was detained.
GCIC is in touch with the police officials to get the pastor released as early as possible.
Pastor M S Valsalan (55) is doing ministry under the banner of Bethesda A.G. Church for the past 15 years in Borgunta village, Sullia Taluk of Mangalore district. He has about 100 believers in his present congregation. Pastor is married to Asha (43) and they are blessed with two children Anish (18) and Anitha (15).
Please pray for an early release of the pastor.

Tue, 16/03/2010 - 11:34am Deliberate Attempts by RSS to Stop Christian Meeting in Madhya Pradesh

Badhwani District, Madhya Pradesh: Pastor Tara Chand along with his fellow pastors conducted a peaceful Christian meeting on the12th march 2010. More than 2000 believers assembled for the meeting. The meeting was interrupted by a mob of more than 150 led by Bajrang Dal and other Hindutva outfits. They raided the Christian meeting held at Babdad Tehsil village, Badhwani District and stopped the meeting by shouting slogans of Jai Shri Ram and accused the pastors of forced conversion. The RSS leaders threatened the Pastor’s to stop the meeting. The accusation went for more than an hour before they dispersed from the premises.
The next day, the RSS men returned with more accusations and demanded for a Panchayat meeting to be held at the village. Pastors were threatened and forbidden to conduct any more Christian meetings in the future. They are making life miserable for all the Christians residing in that village.
Please pray for the Pastors and the believers in Badhwani District. Pray that God will protect these believers and grant them peace and courage as they face these challenges.

Mon, 15/03/2010 - 8:15am Mr. B.V. Pinto appointed as the addtional judge of Karnataka High court

Bangalore, Mar 12:Mr.Benedict Victor Pinto, became the first judge of Karnataka High Court from the Mangalorean Konkani Catholic community after nearly 50 years when he along with three others – Bijoor Manohar, who also hails from the coastal Dakshina Kannada district, Kalvachaiah Govindarajulu and Hosahalli Sheshadri Kempanna -- were sworn in by Chief Justice P D Dinakaran in Bangalore on Friday morning.

The swearing-in ceremony of the four new Justices as Additional Judges held in the jam-packed Karnataka High Court hall early in the morning was preceded by the reading the warrant of appointment issued by President Pratibha Patil by High Court’s Registrar General R B Boodhihal.

Thu, 11/03/2010 - 12:32pm Lawyers to help Kandhamal riot victims to move the supreme court of India

March 10, 2010
Forum of Lawyers for Kandhamal, Orissa violence,

A group of Religious lawyers today finalized plans to help to improve conviction rates in anti-Christian riot cases in the eastern state of Orissa.

The Forum of Religious Lawyers for Kandhamal (FRLK) will help victims appeal to the Supreme Court to reopen 11 murders cases handled by two fast track courts in Orissa, said forum head Monfort Brother Varghese Theckanath.

Flawed investigation and a lack of expert legal help were to blame for the high rate of acquittals, Brother Theckanath said.

Five representatives of the forum concluded a two-day meeting with Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar in Orissa state capital to finalize plans today.

The Religious lawyers formed the forum after they came together Feb. 25-28 in Hyderabad, capital of southern Andhra Pradesh state.

The Hyderabad meeting was initiated by Montfort Social Institute in that city and Pune-based Streevani, a Church-run center for women’s empowerment.

The 54 members who gathered for the initial meeting, all priests, brothers or nuns, have agreed to spend time in Kandhamal, the epicenter of violence, to provide legal help to victims, Brother Theckanath said.

The seven weeks of rioting and violence against Christians in 2008 resulted in 3,232 complaints by victims.

Police have filed 831 cases for investigation. The investigations of some 120 cases have been completed and sent for trial.

By February end the courts have closed some 60 cases, convicting a total of 89 persons and acquitting 251 people, the Religious lawyers said in a statement.

They plan to work with other groups to appeal to the Supreme Court to “stay all criminal proceedings” of riot cases and to re-open and re-investigate all cases.

“We propose appointing a leading criminal lawyer each” in the district, state and Supreme courts,” the brother said.
Global council of Indian Christians(GCIC) had earlier approached National Human Rights Commission and National Women’s Commission to ensure justice for victims

Wed, 10/03/2010 - 1:33pm Why teach only Gita in schools: Madhya Pradesh minorities

10-3-2010
Bhopal: Minorities in Madhya Pradesh have criticised plans to introduce the Bhagvad Gita in state-run schools, saying the scriptures of other religions should also be part of the syllabus, even as a section of Muslim leaders sees nothing wrong with it.

The Catholic Church in Madhya Pradesh has said the government should, if it has to, teach the scriptures of all religions and not just the Hindu scriptures.

'We are not against introducing lessons from religious scriptures in schools. But all religions in the country should get equal representation,' Bhopal's Archbishop Leo Cornelio said.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had declared last week that his government was contemplating introducing the Gita in the school curriculum as 'its study is necessary for moral education'.

'The Bhagvad Gita is a treasure of knowledge. Children should be imparted the knowledge of the Gita and there should be no politics over it,' Chouhan said.

But Cornelia said the move favouring just one religious text was against India's secular character which respects all religions equally.

The archbishop said the church supports the idea of having lessons from scriptures as they will help inculcate values in students, but the problem is 'ever since the BJP government came to power in the state in December 2003, it has made efforts to promote the Hindu religion alone'.

Madhya Pradesh Catholic Churches' spokesman Father Anand Muttangal said: 'We welcome the proposal of the government to include the religious scripture in the educational syllabus. We too have been asking the government to include religious education as part of the curriculum so that children will know about religions when they complete studies, but the thing is that here too it is selective.

Wed, 10/03/2010 - 10:18am Art of living Sri Sri Ravi Shankar flays Husain for nude painting

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar flays Husain for nude painting
By: Agencies Date: 2010-03-09 Place: Bangalore

Self styled Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and the founder of Art of living,expressed surprise over the hue and cry over painter MF Husain's move to give up Indian citizenship and chided him for painting Indian gods in the nude.
"While India has a policy of free expression, one cannot accept blatant insult to the heroes of its land. It is the intention behind a man's creativity which is questionable," Ravi Shankar said in a statement.
"In one of Husain's paintings of Mahatma Gandhi, Karl Marx, Albert Einstein and Hitler, he painted only Hitler nude and said that his way of humiliating a person is to paint him nude.
"No one has ever sculpted Rama and Sita as nude. Creative expression is always welcome. No country has been as liberal as India... Any nude woman could have been painted by him but calling the women Sita, Lakshmi (and) Saraswati shows his perversion and hatred.
"Will MF Husain show the same creativity and the same spirit with Islamic heroes and would he, then, be able retain his Qatari citizenship?
Double standards, bias and hatred do not go well with men of excellence."