[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 52 (Tuesday, May 2, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E612-E613]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   END RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN INDIA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 2, 2000

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, the persecution of Christians and other 
religious minorities in India continues. Now even an ally of the ruling 
party has spoken out against it.
  Newsroom, a website devoted to religious news, reported that the 
Trinamool Congress, a party in coalition with the ruling BJP, demanded 
the banning of Bajrang Dal, a militant Hindu nationalist organization. 
The Bajrang Dal is affiliated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), 
which in turn is part of the RSS, a Fascist organization that is the 
parent organization of the BJP.
  Dara Singh, the person India has arrested in connection with the 
murder of missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons, has been 
linked to the Bajrang Dal. Christians have been subjected to three 
attacks in Uttar Pradesh in two weeks. On Good Friday, members of the 
Bajrang Dal attacked members of the House of Worship, a Christian 
church in Agra. Uttar Pradesh also has a law prohibiting Muslims from 
building new mosques or converting any building into a mosque without 
government permission. In the state of Orissa, religious conversions 
are banned without government permission.
  In Haryana on April 22, three nuns were attacked by a Hindu 
fundamentalist. One, Sister Anandi, remains in Holy Family Hospital in 
serious condition. No one has been arrested for this crime.
  The militant Hindu fundamentalists who carried out these acts are 
allies of the Indian government. The government itself has killed over 
200,000 Christians in Nagaland, over a quarter of a million Sikhs, more 
than 65,000 Kashmiri Muslims since 1988, and tens of thousands of 
others. It holds tens of thousands of political prisoners without 
charge or trial. Some of them have been held for over 15 years. This is 
unacceptable.
  America is the bastion of freedom in the world. It is our 
responsibility to do what we can to ensure freedom for all people. We 
should cut off India's aid until it learns to respect human rights. The 
government must stop killing religious and ethnic minorities. It must 
also punish strongly those who kill and do other acts of violence in 
the government's behalf. Amnesty International, which has not been 
allowed to enter India to investigate human rights abuses since 1978, 
must be allowed to come into the country. Until then, no American money 
should go to India.
  We should also put this Congress on record in support of democracy in 
South Asia by calling for a free and fair plebiscite, under 
international supervision, to decide the political future of Khalistan, 
Kashmir, Nagaland, and all the other nations occupied by India. These 
steps are the best way to bring freedom to all the people of South 
Asia.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to submit the Newsroom article into the 
Record. I urge my colleagues to read it.

 Bajrang Dal Ban Sought After Pre-Easter Attacks on Christians in India

       New Delhi, 25 April 2000 (Newsroom)--Allies of the 
     Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads India's coalition 
     government, this week demanded that the BJP ban a militant 
     group of Hindu nationalists and dismiss the BJP-led Uttar 
     Pradesh state government in the wake of recent attacks 
     against Christians.
       The call by the Trinamool Congress, an ally in the BJP-led 
     National Democratic Alliance headed by Prime Minister Atal 
     Bihari Vajpayee, to ban the Bajrang Dal and dismiss Uttar 
     Pradesh Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta and his government 
     stunned BJP leaders.
       Leaders from the Trinamool Congress and from the opposition 
     Congress and Samajwadi parties blasted the BJP for failing to 
     control the Hindu nationalist group that many blame for the 
     spate of violent incidents directed toward religious 
     minorities in the last two years.
       The Bajrang Dal, a militant Hindu organization affilated 
     with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) and 
     linked to several attacks on Christians, believes it has a 
     duty to promote the Hindu religion and Hindutva--Hinduness--
     in India. Dara Singh, who is accused of masterminding the 
     murders of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two 
     sons last year, has been linked to the Bajrang Dal, although 
     the group denies he is a member.
       Sudip Bandopadhyay of the Trinamul Congress and Yerram 
     Naidu, Tulugu Desam party leader, demanded that security be 
     provided to Christians and other religious minorities 
     wherever possible, especially in states like Uttar Pradesh 
     where there have been three violent attacks against 
     Christians in the last two weeks.
       Madhavrao Scindia, deputy leader of the Congress Party in 
     the Lok Sabha (the lower house of Parliament), said the 
     government should put a stop to incidents like those reported 
     in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana this month. He demanded a 
     response from Home Affairs Minister Lal Kishen Advani, who is 
     considered a friend of most of India's Hindu nationlist 
     groups and is the second most powerful man in India after 
     Vajpayee. ``Groups close to the BJP must be reined in as they 
     are vitiating communal peace,'' Scindia said.
       Opposition Samajwadi party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, who 
     once headed the

[[Page E613]]

     defense ministry, said that militant Hindu groups pose a 
     greater danger than the actions of religious minorities. 
     ``Majority communalism poses a greater danger compared to 
     minority communalism,'' he said. Members of the Hindu group 
     Shiv Sena tried to heckle him while he addressed members of 
     Parliament.
       During a two-day BJP national executive meeting in the 
     Uttar Pradesh town of Lucknow, Vajpayee chastised Uttar 
     Pradesh Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta over his state's 
     handling of attacks on Christian missionaries in Mathura. 
     Vajpayee reportedly said the state should have dispatched 
     police to assess the situation and instill confidence among 
     the Christian community. He also asked the state government 
     to explain its position on the controversial religious places 
     bill, which prohibits Muslims from building mosques or 
     converting an existing building into a mosque without 
     government permission.
       Bajrang Dal national coordinator Surendra Kumar Jain said 
     last month that his group was fighting to construct a temple 
     for Ram in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. The extremist group also 
     once demanded that the federal government declare Pakistan an 
     enemy state.
       Referring to the attacks against Christians, Jain said that 
     ``missionaries consider Hindus a soft target. Even the words 
     `soft target' were used in the missionary literature. 
     However, now the Hindus have woken up. We are no more a soft 
     target for their unholy activities. We appreciate missionary 
     services, but only when the object is service and not 
     conversion.''
       Monday's confrontation in parliament followed three attacks 
     against Christians in Uttar Pradesh in the last two weeks. 
     Members of the House of Worship, one of India's fastest-
     growing church groups headquartered in the southern state of 
     Hyderabad, were attacked by suspected Bajrang Dal activists 
     on the outskirts of Agra, site of the Taj Mahal, police said. 
     The Good Friday attack on the 14-member preaching team from 
     Hyderabad in the BJP-ruled state came a week after a Catholic 
     priest and three nuns were attacked in a school. It was the 
     seventh attack reported in the state in less than 100 days.
       The Bajrang Dal complained to state police that the 
     Hyderabad group was trying to convert villagers by offering 
     them money, a charge church authorities deny. In a counter 
     complaint the victims reported that a mob of 20 to 30 people 
     attacked the van in which they were traveling and tried to 
     burn the vehicle. The group returned to Hyderabad where the 
     main church, Hebron Church, is located. The church, also 
     known as the Indigenous Society of Churches in India, is one 
     of the fastest growing in the country with mainly new 
     converts as members. It was founded by a Punjabi Sikh 
     agricultural engineer, Bakht Singh, in the 1920s. Bakht Singh 
     is 99.
       Three Catholic nuns on their way to attend midnight Mass in 
     Rewari in neighboring Haryana state were attacked Saturday 
     night by a man riding a scooter. It was the third attack on 
     Christians reported in the past three months in this wheat-
     rich state. One nun, Sister Anandi, remains in Holy Family 
     Hospital in serious condition. The other two nuns suffered 
     minor injuries. Police so far have made no arrests.
       John Dayal, convener of the United Christian Forum for 
     Human Rights, said in a prepared statement that ``this attack 
     was part of the series of ongoing attacks on Christians and 
     their institutions.''

     

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