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---------- Forwarded message ---------- http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/printedition/250303/detPLA01.shtml Tuesday, March 25, 2003 Minority report Vishal Arora Why is the Gujarat government so desperate to prepare a community-based database of the Christians in the state and to probe the sources of funding to Christian NGOs? The recent discreet survey of Christians is the third such endeavour. Even the high court order of 1999, which stated that such a census was against the tenets of the Indian Constitution, did not deter the governments intent to gather information about the Christians in the state. In 2001, the communal headcount was ordered again. Now, after two more years, a similar survey is being carried out yet again. Each time, the order has been given discreetly from a fax in 1991 to oral instructions in 2001. This time, it is being conducted so secretly that initially, the police even denied that a survey was happening at all. It was only later that the state home department acknowledged that such an exercise was being carried out, but in order to collect details to be tabled in the Lok Sabha on voluntary organisations receiving foreign funds and on some reports of conversion. If this is true, why are police being sent door-to-door in various districts to seek information on the assets of Christian families, the sources of their income, date and details of their conversion and whether monetary assistance was given after conversion? Dont the reports of conversion have the required information as to who are being converted and by whom? Further, why the probe only on Christian NGOs? Do only Christian NGOs receive foreign grants for social work? Moreover, why has the Foreign Contribution Regulation Department of the home ministry not been entrusted with the investigation? In 1999, it was maintained that the motive behind such an exercise was to ensure security to Christians in the wake of the attacks on their community in Dangs district the previous year. If so, then what kind of information should have been sought: the type of weapon licences that Christians have; the names of Christians involved in criminal activities; and those indulging in the kind of trickery that missionaries do; and so on? And the Christians were expected to believe that security would be provided to them, despite being suspected as culprits of the Hindu-Christian conflict, as implied in these questions? Only one thing has been constant in the four-year attempt to prepare a database: the pre-conceived notion implied in the questions that Christians receive foreign funds to convert people and that they indulge in anti-national activities. However, facts tell a different story. According to the census, there were 0.43 per cent Christians of the total population of 4.13 crore in 1991, while in 2001 the percentage decreased to 0.42 of the five crore Gujaratis. Where have all the converts gone? And what does the government think is the motive behind the Christian community providing various services in the fields of health, education and social development? Because they are anti-national? Since the information being sought is in contradiction to the claimed motives, the Christians in Gujarat have a reason to suspect that the discreet survey is a build-up to the anti- conversion bill to be introduced in the state assembly during this session and/or for the preparation of a database of Christians to be handed over to communal organisations. In the wake of the successful division of Hindu and Muslim votes in the state, this is perceived by these organisations as the perfect time to fulfil their partisan agenda. Their fervour in preparing such a database is rooted in their victory in the recent elections despite (rather because of) the Gujarat carnage the electoral win is being interpreted as endorsement of the act by the people. What was merely an experiment earlier, has now become a conviction for them that pan-Hindutva image works. However, the defeat of the BJP in the Himachal elections shows that the communal mindset is limited to the states where communal organisations have been working over a long period of time. The people of our country, sooner or later, will understand that communal organisations have only one motto: divide and rule. The secret survey is in line with their motto. _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.goanet.org/mailman/listinfo/goanet
