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December 2001
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December 2001
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Kerala: communal cauldron K erala, a state with not just the highest literacy levels but also a state with many lived symbols of a syncretic culture has been festering with communal tensions for over two decades now. The reason? The presence of aggressively communal outfits on the Hindu and Muslim side of the communal divide.Old tensions have found a new lease of life in Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha districts in southern Kerala, which have witnessed an outburst of violence, desecration and arson from December 6-12. On December 6 in separate incidents considered by the media to be the actions of Muslim communal outfits with dubious links, pilgrims visiting Sabarimala were attacked and the BJP’s district office in Pathanmthitta district badly torched by unidentified persons. Communal conflicts in Kerala had been so far limited to Kozhikode and parts of Kannur and Kasargod. Not any more, it seems: Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha have emerged as hunting grounds of the National Democratic Front (NDF) and the rival RSS-BJP organisations, which have been slugging it out for supremacy with dangerous consequences. Prohibitory orders were clamped on several communally sensitive areas in Pathanamthitta, Kollam, Kannur, Kozhikode and Thrissur districts. Meanwhile, leaders of a string of Muslim cultural, political and religious organisations have strongly condemned the violence that occurred in the wake of the December 6 attacks and hartal. In a joint statement, they said that whoever committed crime in the name of the Muslim community on December 6 would not get any support from the community. They called for expression of any protests in future peacefully and with self-restraint. They wanted that communal amity be preserved at any cost.
A teacher in a school run by a Christian missionary was raped and murdered in Balrampur district of Chhattisgarh, in late November.Twentytwo-year-old Sorita Toppo, a Christian, went to forest to collect woods on November 28 when she was criminally assualted and murdered, superintendent of police, Balrampur, B S Thakur said. Toppo’s body, recovered from the forest, bore multiple wounds, he said, adding one person had been detained for questioning. The SP said Toppo was employed in a school run by Father James Minz in a village, some 500 km from state capital Raipur. ( PTI, December 3, 01) Meanwhile, four missionaries were seriously injured when a group of miscreants attacked them near Himmatgarh village of the Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh. The Additional Superintendent of Police, Mr. K. C. Jain, said here today that the missionaries were assaulted by about 10 persons when they were returning after viewing a movie on Jesus Christ last night. The injured were admitted to a hospital. (UNI) Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh has ordered police to arrest anyone caught circulating posters and handouts in the Dhar-Jhabua tribal belt with messages branding Christians "anti-nationals". Pamphlets with slogans like "Rashtra birodhi Isai samudai ke khilaf awaaz uthao (raise your voice against the anti-national Christian community)" are already doing the rounds."The posters have no name of any printer on them. But the culprits have been identified. We have registered cases under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and race) and they will be arrested," the chief minister said. The needle of suspicion points to the RSS, which has declared a Dharam Jagran Abhiyan in Dhar and Jhabua districts of south-west Madhya Pradesh. In the massive campaign to Hinduise tribals, nearly 3,000 RSS swayamsevaks will hit villages in the tribal belt with Hanuman, Ganesh and Shiva idols and portraits. Though the RSS official version says less than 3,000 volunteers will be at work, a BJP’s spokesman told the media that nothing less than "11,000 sangh parivar workers" who have been given the job of preaching tribals the virtues of Hinduism.
I n what appears to be a cynical re-play of events that preceded December 6, 1992 both the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and other hardline outfits have begun making provocative statements in the run up to both the UP elections and their proposed date for temple construction, March 12, 02 — Mahashivratri Day.In line with this orchestrated drama, statements and counter-statements regularly feature in the media. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has threatened to mobilise five crore "karsevaks" at Ayodhya on February 17, as a first step towards construction of the Ram Mandir at the disputed site.(international general secretary of the VHP, Pravin Togadia, Kolkata) Whether it is the form of trishul diksha samarohs, or jalabhishek programmes (see CC, Aug-Sept 01 and November 01) or the ‘Ram naam jaap yagya’ presently underway in Uttar Pradesh, there is a systematic attempt to mobilize unemployed youth towards religiosity and for the campaign. |