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."

Tue, 09/03/2010 - 7:35pm Karnataka state banning cow slaughter

Bangalore, Mar 9 -BJP government in Karnataka today reintroduced in the assembly a bill banning cow slaughter amid protests and dharna .

The Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill, 2010, was withdrawn only last week, without assigning any reason

Minister for Law S Suresh Kumar asserted that "we have right to do it (introduce the bill)".

Pandemonium prevailed as Animal Husbandry Minister Revunaik Bilamagi rose to introduce the bill which was described as "draconian", anti-poor, anti-Dalit and anti-backward classes, charging that BJP has hidden agenda.

Tue, 09/03/2010 - 4:05pm Why not Charity Begin at Home?

By Fr. Anand Muttungal
Communal violence has been a burning problem faced by Christians in many North Indian States but it remained un-addressed for years. The anti-Muslim riots in 1992 united the Muslims to face the fanatics. The increased violence in Southern states and prolonged violence in Khandmal, Orissa has made the Church to think seriously on this issue.
The worry of the Church is expressed in the report red out in the 29th Plenary General Assembly of CBCI in Guwati. It reads, ‘attacks against Christians have taken place in several states….. Even more villainous was the malicious damage to human relations with a systematic campaign that tried to divide communities. What shocked Church leaders and others was that areas they thought were safe from the antagonism of fundamentalist groups also experienced violence….’ It has become a political issue that began to be at the centre of Christians all over India .
The extent of violence unlashed by the fundamental organizations is indefinable. They got their supporters into most political parties, media, Government structures, Private sectors, religious establishments, NGOs etc. They implement their plan of Hindu Rashtra through them. They have not only physically attacked the community but also at all levels like delaying the files of Christians in the Government offices, malicious propaganda in the media etc. are part of the vicious circle created by the fundamentalists. They have succeeded in creating a general notion among the people that all Christian activities are aimed at religious conversion. People began to suspect their activities in the villages where they had good relations. The more dangerous ideology fundamentalists coined of late is the equation of Hindutva with nationalism and religious conversion is being seen as attacks against Indian Nationalism and Cultural Nationalism. In short they are spreading the ideology that to be an Indian and Nationalistic one needs to be a Hindu. Every one against this ideology is considered an enemy of the Country. It is the deadliest form of fundamentalism akin to Nazism.

Tue, 09/03/2010 - 9:03am Past. T.T. Joseph entered into glory on 8th March

Bangalore
past. T.T. Joseph State President and Senior minister of IPC entered into glory with Lord on 8th March.Pastor TT has left a void in the hearts of many believers across the world.Global council of Indian Christians(GCIC) joins with the believers to pray for the bereaved family members and friends.May god continue to bless the mission and vision of IPC.

Tue, 09/03/2010 - 7:28am Open Letter to Karnataka CM-Justice Saldhana

Bangalore

Act practiced by the(karnataka) State Government which is directly responsible for the horrifying communal attacks that are continuing unabated and which are on the increase. Shimoga and Hassan are the latest examples.The Vijaya Karnataka Newspaper through its Editor – Vishweshwar Bhat has been repeatedly publishing extremely inflammatory editorials and articles targeting the Christian community. That newspaper has been rewarded by your Government with publicity advertisements worth over Rs. 100.00 Crores(20 Million US$) in the course of the last two years

In your capacity as Chief Minister and Head of the Government of Karnataka, you have officially stated that the Government will take stringent action according to Law against every individual and publication which is in anyway responsible for inciting communal disharmony and particularly in relation to the publication of articles that are inflammatory and which attack religious and communal sentiments. I am happy that you have said this, but it is equally essential for me to record the double standards that are in act practiced by the State Government which is directly responsible for the horrifying communal attacks that are continuing unabated and which are on the increase. Shimoga and Hassan are the latest examples.

The attacks against the Churches and more importantly, the atrocities committed against the members of the Christian community and their institutions after your Government assumed office erupted out of all proportions in September 2008 and globally shamed Karnataka. I have personally conducted a detailed investigation / enquiry into these incidents and have recorded the fact that they are Government supported, Government instigated and covered up for by the State Government. I am confining this letter to one such instance and after your official pronouncement made today, I am calling upon the State Government to proceed according to Law in this case.

The Vijaya Karnataka Newspaper through its Editor – Vishweshwar Bhat has been repeatedly publishing extremely inflammatory editorials and articles targeting the Christian community. That newspaper has been rewarded by your Government with publicity advertisements worth over Rs. 100.00 Crores in the course of the last two years. Incidentally, the financial position of the Government has been so precarious that Government employees particularly in the rural areas have not received their salaries for months together and many of them have been driven to suicide while the Government has enough of money to publish full page colour ads of the CM and his Colleagues everyday spending crores of public money in order to cover up for the total failures on the economic front.

The Vijaya Karnataka Newspaper published one extremely offensive article in the month of December 2008, which resulted in very strong reactions and huge public protest from all over the country by right thinking citizens belonging to all communities. I have seen the article which is one of the most vicious, offensive and venomous pieces of writing directed against the Christian community and is sufficient to invoke the maximum jail sentence against the Writer – Byrappa, the Editor - Vishweshwar Bhat, the Printer and the Publishers. This was published at a point of time when the police all over the State and particularly in the Karavali area were indiscriminately registering false cases against members of the minority community and against any secular publication that disapproved of religious and human rights atrocities. This misuse of power has invoked strictures from the High Court and Orders for Exemplary Damages.

In sharp contrast, when the Head of the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) filed FIR 0343 at the Mangalore South Police Station on 27.12. 2008, the police refused to take cognizance on the grounds that they required to get clearance from your most trusted colleague Dr. V.S. Acharya, the Home Minister of the State. In the course of my hearings in Mangalore, I have questioned the Police Authorities as to how and under what circumstances they have refused to act in this case and the answer given was that the Head of the Home Department has instructed them not to proceed. Is there a Rule of Law in Karnataka?

Similarly, in respect of this very article and this very newspaper, another FIR No. 0002 was filed at the Bangalore North Police Station by an aggrieved member of the community on 02.01.2009 and again, under the Home Minister’s directions, no action has been taken. At the same time, this very Home Minister directed the Police to register nine false FIRs against the Editor of ‘Karavali Ale’ in different Police Stations spread over Mangalore and Udipi on absolutely false, imaginary and unsustainable allegations that he is inciting communal disharmony merely because that publication disapproved of the Government inspired violence against the members of the Christian community.

It is up to your Government to redeem the position in the light of your announcements made, and that will be proof as to whether the statements made by the Head of the Government are genuine or not.

- Justice Michael F Saldanha