With political discrimination in the wake of pogroms, Orissa Christians cannot vote
ICC Note: If Christians cannot vote in elections in April, Hindu extremists will have attained their goal.
02/10/09 Bhubaneshwar, India (AsiaNews) – Orissa’s anti-Christian pogroms are having more political fallout. After being on the receiving end of violence last August Christians now could experience outright political discrimination in the upcoming April-May elections.
The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) is warning that more than 70,000 Christian voters might not be able to exercise their right to vote in federal and local elections. Some 50,000 Christians who fled their villages at the height of the anti-Christian violence and tens of thousands who followed them afterwards into neighbouring states are now without identity papers or voters’ cards, which were burnt during the pogrom, unable to go back home.
GCIC National President Sajan K. George wrote to the chief election commissioner and the Election Commission of India, urging them to rapidly find a way to have the names of Christian voters on the voters’ lists... [Go To Full Story]
