By Melwyn Pinto SJ
BANGALORE, Jan 30: Communal forces allegedly beat up students of St Joseph’s PU College, Anekal near Banglaore and paraded the Principal of the College to police station here on January 27, accusing the College of not hoisting the national flag on Republic Day.

The incident took place on January 27 as an unruly mob of over one hundred belonging to ABVP, VHP, Rashtra Shakti Sene and Karnatak Rakshana Vedike barged into the College campus demanding action against the Principal and the College management for not hoisting the national flag on the previous day. Some of the elected councilors of the Anekal Muncipality too were part of the mob.

Principal Fr Melwin Mendonca SJ and the Jesuit superior Fr Anil D’Mello tried to pacify the crowd, but the mob was unrelenting and demanded that the principal be arrested. The police who were present at the campus largely remained inactive even as the mob allegedly beat up a few students who came to protect their principal who was being taken to the police station. The principal was paraded for over a kilometer to the police station by the mob and was not allowed to be taken by the police vehicle.
Principal’s version

Principal, Fr Mendonca agreed that the flag was not hoisted in the present campus of the College. However, he said that a formal flag hoisting on Republic Day took place at Jnana Jyoti campus, where the office of the registered society of the management is situated and where the new college building is coming up. “We have utmost regard and respect for national sentiments and we do not in any way want to bring down national fervor. We did have a flag hoisting at the registered office of the management where the new building of the college is coming up and to which the college will be shifted in the next academic year,” said principal, Fr Mendonca.

St Joseph’s PU College, run by the Jesuit fathers, was begun in 2010 to cater to students from the lower strata of society. Presently, there are 378 students out of whom 220 are dalits from neighbouring villages. “The real reason behind the attack on our college is not the flag hoisting issue. There are several forces simmering here in Anekal who cannot stomach the rise of a college catering to subalterns. In the last one year the ABVP has come to the college eight times on different pretexts. They had demanded that the college be closed during the Anna Hazare agitation. But the management did not relent and was firm on them. They are out to look for reasons to malign the name of the college,” said Fr Mendonca.

The communal attacks on Christians in Anekal is not new. In 2010, a group of students from St Joseph’s College, Bangalore was beaten up by communal forces. The students were part of an NSS camp. A Jesuit scholastic too was stabbed when he was on his way to a village near Anekal. Stones were pelted at the Anekal Catholic Church by anti social elements.

However, for the past few years the situation was under control. But, the Jesuit fathers and Christians in Anekal are of the opinion that the quiet was just the calm before the storm and more attacks on Christians and their institutions will continue unless the law enforcing agencies took stringent measures to protect the rights of the minorities.
http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=128603

Analysis
1. ABVP has visited the College 8 times this academic year. They have forced that the college to be closed down twice for Anna Hazare agitation. They wanted our students to become members of their association. The management rule says that no outside association can conduct enrollment of students inside the college campus. This episode was used to malign the College Management and Principal by ABVP.
2. The associations wanted to collect from the management by harassing the College and management.
3. Some institutions thought that the cancellation of recognition of St Joseph’s PU College will be beneficial to their institution as Tashildhar was forced to write to the PU board to take stringent action. My meeting with DDPU at Basvangudi revealed this, as the DD accused the college on the basis of religion and threatened that the recognition will be cancelled from next year. I was not allowed to present, our part of the whole episode though we had conducted Republic day function at Jnanjyothi where the registered office Society is situated.
4. The Jesuits and their works have faced stiff resistance for the past 15 years by the communal forces. In year 2000 students who were on NSS camp to Anekal village were violently attacked, a little later a Jesuit Scholastic was stabbed on his way to a village. There are more and many such instances where the Christians are persecuted in this part of the state.
5. The issue not flag hoisting on republic but larger designs of saffron groups to destroy secular fabric of the country. As Kannada Prabha reporting on the incident says: “Christians should not be allowed to open educational institutions, Principal should be thrown out of the country, Christians destroy culture of India and hence take strong action on them”. This only reveals on the hidden agenda behind the agitation.
6. Many reliable sources have told me that there are many institutions in Bangalore District alone who have not hoisted the national flag on republic day. Will the above organizations protest for the closure of all those institutions?
Future
Future is tough and belongs only to the daring and the committed Jesuits. Crisis management groups and quick response teams to help men and works in such situations will strengthen our apostolate. The journey has only begun and there is a long way to go.
- fr melwin