Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Communal violence

The news that Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal was advised by the Orissa government not to visit Kandhamal in view of the tense situation prevailing there and reports of renewed violence in different parts of the State make one wonder whether we are indeed living in India. Is it the same Kalinga where Samrat Ashok resolved to give up war?

T.N. Arthanari,

Salem

Fundamentalist outfits with a divisive agenda have no place in a civilised society. Violence let loose by the VHP and the Bajrang Dal against Christians in Orissa is nothing but an act of savagery. The State government cannot afford to remain a silent spectator to the unabated spell of violence. It is time it took measures to instil a sense of security in the minds of the fear-struck minorities.

M. Jeyaram,

Sholavandan

This is not the first time that Christians have been targeted in Orissa. Had stringent and timely punishment been meted out to the murderers of Graham Staines and his sons and those responsible for the attacks on Christians in 2007, the tensions in Orissa could have been averted. Christians have nothing to do with the death of Swami Lakshmanananda and four others.

N. Huidina,

Kannur

VHP and Bajrang Dal activists attacked Christians and their institutions, including an orphanage, without reason. Why attack those who serve the poor and the weaker sections? Should we take pride in attacking the weak? We need to develop compassion for the poor and courage to challenge the powerful in and outside India.

Ilanko Xavier,

Madrid

Without even waiting for a preliminary investigation into the murder of Swami Lakshmanananda, the sangh parivar launched a violent anti-Christian movement. Their action reminds us of the way in which the Godhra train fire was used by the communal forces to fuel the Gujarat pogrom in 2002.

S. Nityananda,

Bangalore

I am amazed at the arguments advanced to explain the communal riots in Orissa. Religious conversions are supposed to be the root of the problem. Doesn’t our Constitution guarantee us the freedom of religion? Inducements are supposed to fuel conversions. But in all these years, no case of religious conversion has been proved to be the result of inducements. The greatest inducement for religious conversion is the caste system, which condemns human beings to a sub-human existence.

A. Edwards,

Salem

No peace-loving person will approve of Swami Lakshmanananda’s murder or the atrocities that followed. Some persons have attributed the communal tensions in Orissa to religious conversions. Propagation of faith is a fundamental right. Don’t companies advertise their products? Those who want to try them have every right to do so. If mass conversions take place in the manner alleged, why has the population of Christians remained the same for the last 40 years? Does anyone ever stop re-conversions? If ‘inducement’ (money) is what matters, surely, the majority can spend much more than the minorities? Let us remember that Christian missionaries go to unreachable places in hills and hamlets to help people and provide them food, shelter, medicine and education.

T. Charles John Bhaskar,

Chennai

The leadership in New Delhi, it seems, has gone into deep hibernation. The Maoists have struck in the communally sensitive Orissa by killing a VHP leader. From what followed in the past week, it seems they have succeeded in creating a sense of fear and insecurity among the minorities. The visual media have blown the issue out of proportion making it appear that our secular fabric has been destroyed. The missionaries, for their part, have taken to the streets and called for closing down schools and colleges run by them instead of cooperating with the investigating agencies to identify who exactly the assailants of Swami Lakshmanananda are.

G. Shankar,

Chennai

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