[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 163 (Wednesday, November 17, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2423-E2424]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      INDIA PROTESTS POPE'S VISIT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. DAN BURTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 16, 1999

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I was disturbed to learn of the 
organized protests against Pope John Paul II in anticipation of his 
recent visit to India. In fact, many would tell you that there was more 
reason to worry about his safety on this trip than when he traveled to 
communist Poland under martial law. Although the Pope left the country 
safely, I cannot forget the ghastly image printed by the media of Hindu 
activists burning an effigy of Pope John Paul II in New Delhi before 
his visit.
  Mr. Speaker, these protests were led by a violent faction of Hindu 
fundamentalists that are closely aligned with the Hindu nationalist 
government. They have carried out a wave of brutal attacks on 
Christians within the past year. Since Christmas Day of 1998, they have 
burned down Christian churches, prayer halls, and schools. Also, four 
priests have been murdered, and earlier this year Australian missionary 
Graham Staines and his two young sons were burned alive.
  How much more of this must we witness? Already 200,000 Christians, 
250,000 Sikhs, 65,000 Muslims, and tens of thousands of others have 
fallen at the hands of either the Indian government or those closely 
related to the government since the subcontinent's independence a half-
century ago.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit the articles from India Abroad and the New York 
Post into the Record regarding this disturbing issue.

                [From the New York Post, Oct. 28, 1999]

            Pope's Passage to India May Be Most Perilous Yet

                            (By Rod Dreher)

       Will Pope John Paul II be safe in India? There is more 
     reason to worry for the pontiff's welfare as he visits the 
     world's largest democracy next week than there was when he 
     went to communist Poland under marital law.
       That's because a small but violent faction of Hindu 
     fundamentalists aligned with the Hindu nationalist government 
     have been conducting an organized campaign against the pope 
     as part of a concerted effort to demonize and persecute the 
     country's tiny Christian minority.
       The government promises to protect the Holy Father from 
     coalition fanatics. But while John Paul can rely on state 
     security, his Catholic followers and Protestant brethren 
     remain at the mercy of Hindu brownshirts.
       These thugs have carried out vicious attacks on Christians 
     since a coalition led by the hard-line Bharatiya Janata Party 
     (BJP) came to power two years ago.
       Freedom House, the Washington-based human-rights 
     organization, says there have been more recorded incidents of 
     violence against India's Christian minority in the past year 
     than in the previous half-century.
       The most shocking incident took place in January, when 
     Hindu thugs burned alive Australian missionary Graham Staines 
     and his two little boys. That was far from an isolated 
     incident.
       In 1998, the Catholic Bishop's Conference in India reported 
     108 cases of beatings, stonings, church burnings, looting of 
     religious schools and institutions, and other attacks on 
     Catholics and evangelicals.
       It has been just as bad this year. Just last month, a 
     Catholic priest working in the same territory as the Staines 
     family was murdered while saying Mass for converts, his heart 
     pierced by a poison-tipped arrow.
       Why the attacks? Hindu nationalist leaders, particularly 
     those associated with the BJP-allied World Hindu Congress 
     (VHP), claim Christians are on ``conversion overdrive.''
       This is preposterous. Despite being present in India for 
     almost 2,000 years, and educating hundreds of millions of 
     Indian children, Christianity claims the allegiance of less 
     than 3 percent of the country's people.
       Even in Orissa state, site of the worst anti-Christian 
     violence, fewer than 500 conversions occur each year.
       Still, Hindu nationalists continue to make wild-eyed 
     assertions, such as VHP leader Mohan Joshi's recent statement 
     that missionary homes run by Mother Teresa's order were 
     ``nothing but conversion centers.''
       Not true, but if it were, so what?
       We know perfectly well what would have become of the 
     diseased and the destitute had Mother Teresa's nuns not 
     rescued them from the street: They would have been left to 
     die in the gutter, condemned by a culture that decrees these 
     lowborn souls deserve their fate.
       ``What has the VHP done to better the life of the low 
     castes? The answer is nothing,'' says Freedom House 
     investigator Joseph Assad.
       ``When I was in India, I talked to one Christian who was 
     forcibly reconverted to Hinduism. He told me when no one 
     cared for us, Christians came and gave us food, gave us 
     shelter and gave us medicine.''
       An Indian Protestant activist who lives in New Jersey told 
     me BJP rule has meant open season on followers of Christ.
       ``The last two years have been unprecedented,'' the man 
     says.
       ``They have burned churches down, raped nuns, killed 
     people. We complain to the government, but they look the 
     other way.''
       The Hindu militants certainly do not represent the 
     sentiments of all Hindus. But these thugs have the tacit 
     support and protection of the ruling BJP. Indeed, the BJP Web 
     site condemns ``Semitic monotheism''--Judaism, Christianity 
     and Islam--for ``bringing intolerance to India.''
       This is what is known to professional propagandists as the 
     Big Lie. No wonder Hindu hard-liners confidently pillage 
     Christian communities.
       How many more Hindu-led atrocities will Christians and 
     others suffer before Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee 
     calls off the nationalist dogs?
       Will it take a physical assault on the Holy Father for the 
     world to wake up to the kind of place Gandhi's great nation 
     has become.

                                  ____
                                  

                   [From India Abroad, Oct. 29, 1999]

            Protest March Launched Against the Pope's Visit

                         (By Frederick Noronha)

       Panaji, Goa.--Hindu right-wing groups flagged off a Goa-to-
     Delhi protest march on Oct. 21 that could fuel the 
     controversy surrounding Pope John Paul II's visit to India, 
     scheduled for early November.
       The campaigners are protesting what they call large-scale 
     conversions to Christianity in India and want the Pope to say 
     that all religions are equal.
       The protest march, which is scheduled to end in Delhi 
     around the time of the Pope's visit, is being called a 
     ``Dharma Jagran Abhiyan.'' It was flagged off from Divar, an 
     island off Old Goa, once a center for Catholic 
     evangelization.

[[Page E2424]]

       ``This awareness march is for people of all religions. 
     Christians are brothers of the same blood,'' said Subhash 
     Velingkar, one of the organizers of the march.
       Velingkar lashed out at the English language media for 
     voicing concern that the march could ignite anti-Christian 
     feelings.
       At the same time, however, Velingkar condemned religious 
     conversions saying that they changed ``not just the religion 
     of people, but also their culture and traditions.''
       He criticized Delhi Archbishop Alan de Lastic for ``sending 
     an SOS message to the Vatican'' complaining about the 
     situation in India. ``Why should people from India complain 
     to the Vatican?'' he asked.
       Velingkar reiterated the demand voiced by the Vishwa Hindu 
     Parishad (VHP), the right-wing affiliate of the Bharatiya 
     Janata Party (BJP) which leads the coalition government at 
     the Center, that the Pope should make an admission in his 
     public address at Delhi that all the religions are the same 
     and all lead to salvation.
       The VHP last week once again welcomed the Pope's visit, 
     stating that it was not against Christianity, but was opposed 
     to ``Churchainity.''
       A VHP affiliate, the Sanskriti Raksha Manch, has already 
     demanded an apology from the Pope for the atrocities 
     committed during Inquisition in Portuguese-ruled Goa in the 
     16th century.
       From Goa, the march passes through Belgaum, Nipani, Mumbai, 
     Kolhapur and Nashik in Karnataka and Maharashtra, before 
     entering Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and then 
     onward to Delhi, covering the 1,300-mile route in about a 
     fortnight. It will reach Delhi by the time of the Pope's 
     visit on Nov. 5.
       Newspaper reports quoted Manohar Parrikar, the BJP Leader 
     of the Opposition in the Goa Assembly, as saying that his 
     party was neither opposing nor supporting the march.
       He said the movement's leadership was not under the control 
     of the BJP and while individual members of the party were 
     free to join it, the party could not be held responsible for 
     any untoward incident arising from the march.

     

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