The United States puts India on "Watch list": religious freedom at risk

The United States puts India on "Watch list": religious freedom at risk
by Nirmala Carvalho
The U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom denounces the inertia of the Government of India before the serious discrimination against religious minorities. Angry reaction in New Delhi: "Undue Interference". For the Indian Church it is a sign of the international community’s concern over the growth of religious intolerance in the country.


Mumbai (AsiaNews) - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has placed India on the so-called Watch list, which includes countries in which religious and ethnic minorities suffer severe discrimination. The USCIRF are asking President Barak Obama put pressure on the government in New Delhi that "deserves" to be placed on the list for the "largely inadequate response" to fundamentalist violence against Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 and Christians in Orissa in 2008 -- 2009.
India’s reaction has been one of anger at finding itself compared to countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Somalia and Cuba. Vishnu Prakash, spokesperson for the Indian Foreign Ministry, described the inclusion in the so-called Watch List "aberrant" and an "undue interference" in internal affairs of the country.
Fr. Babu Joseph, spokesman of the Indian Bishops' Conference (CBCI), explains to AsiaNews that the USCIRF decision "is a clear indication of the growing concern of the international community to the repeated failure of India to take decisive corrective measures to curb religious intolerance ".
Relations between India and the U.S. in matters of religious freedom have long been troubled. The Annual Report on Religious Freedom by USCIRF presented in Washington May 1st spoke of "positive signals" from India. In July, however, the Commission asked to visit Orissa to check the situation of Christian refugees in the area and their conditions after the Hindu pogrom of August 2008. The Indian authorities denied entry visas arousing controversy. Now the government in New Delhi finds itself included in the Watch list.Orissa: Hindu extremists burn three Christian homes in Kandhamal
by Nirmala Carvalho
The victims identified the ring leaders, but the police have advised them against naming him on the report. The attack took place on May 31st, the very day the armies sent to protect Christians in the area withdrew.


Bhubaneshwar (AsiaNews) - Three Christian houses, were set on fire by Hindu extremists in Sirsapanga village of Kandhamal, (Orissa). The episode took place on May 31st in the evening, the very day the Central reserve police force (Crf), sent to the area to protect the Christians, began their phased withdrawal as mandated by the central government. The incident seems aimed at stopping from Christians returning to their villages.
The three houses belong to Manoj Pradhan, Lankeswar and Sunil Digal and lie only 3 km from the headquarters of the Crpf. Eyewitnesses report that the extremist group celebrated the police withdrawal by attacking the homes. Deployed for months across the region to halt assaults and another pogrom of the Christians, the New Delhi government decided to withdraw the Crpf. The Orissa governor, Naveen Patnaik, has however asked the Minister for Internal Affairs Chidambaram to leave the last 10 companies - circa 1000 men – at least for another three months.
The withdrawal coincides with the closure of the refugee camps and the Orissa governments appeal to the Christians to prepare for their return to their home villages. On June 5th the district administration in Kandhamal organised a peace meeting between the Christians in the camps and the communities of their local villages. Fr. Bijay Pradhan, parish priest in Raikia, sees in the burning of the three homes in Sirsapanga “an attempt to stop this”.
Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (Gcic), explains that “The Christians from Sirsapanga village have not returned to the village, they are still in the Refugee camps. The administration is keen that the people go back to the villages and be resettled, so occasionally, the Christians go to their homes and try to make some temporary repairs. This is being objected to by the dominant community, and the burning of the three Christians homes is an attempt to control our people”.
The situation is still unstable. The three owners of the burned houses in Sirsapanga have presented official reports to the police. According to Fr.Ajay Kumar Singh, Director of Jan Vikas, Social Action Initiative “the gang was led by Dilu Mohanty, who is mastermind behind attacks against Christians in Raikia and G.Udayagiri”. The victims identified him in First Information Report. “But the police – continues Fr. Singh – asked them to change tehir report ommitting the extremist agng leaders name”.
“Culprits [of the violence] continue to roam about freely, - concludes Fr. Pradhan - and some of them threaten our people that if they don’t withdraw their police reports against them, they will not be able to return to their villages”.