ICC Note:
Government committee finds that Hindus were spreading copies of an inflammatory anti-Hindu book in order to have an excuse to attack the Christian orphanage and school Emmanuel Mission International.
The Hindu (03/21/06) A fact-finding team of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee which visited Kota a few days ago to enquire into attacks on Christian institutions in the wake of the controversy over the book “Haqeeqat” has termed the developments a “well-planned, well-organised and well-orchestrated conspiracy” by Sangh Parivar outfits. “The attacks on the Christian institutions deserve condemnation from all sections of society,” the team has noted.
The team, which submitted its preliminary report to party president Sonia Gandhi last week, reported that Emmanuel Mission International, the target of the “hate campaign” unleashed by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Bajrang Dal, Hindu Jagran Manch and other radical organizations, was not responsible for authoring the controversial book or publishing it. PCC president B.D.Kalla is likely to meet Ms. Gandhi in Delhi on Tuesday to brief her on the situation.
“In fact we found that the groups which spearheaded the attacks on Christian institutions in Kota themselves have distributed 4000 copies of the book after printing it in a press belonging to a senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader,” K.C.Choudhary, PCC treasurer, who was part of the committee said talking to The Hindu . The enquiry team comprised Raghu Sharma, vice-president, Asq Ali Tak, general secretary, Kuldip Srivastava, secretary, and Pankaj Sharma, former District Congress Committee president, Kota . The team has raised questions on the impartiality of the district administration and role of the local police in dealing with the situation when a series of attacks took place on Christian schools, hospitals and orphanages in February this year. The public sentiments in Kota were not against Christians but the Hindu groups, including Minister for Social Welfare and Cooperatives, Madan Dilwar, who were trying to inject communal venom in the minds of the public, Dr.Choudhary pointed out.
There have been gross anomalies in the way the Government went about cancelling the registration of the EMI institutions. “The EMI bodies are registered under the Societies Act while their registrations have been cancelled under Cooperatives Act,” Dr.Choudhary observed. The District Collector, who was earlier director of the Social Welfare Department, was acting as “a tool” in the hands of Mr.Dilwar, he charged.
“We found that the patients were thrown out of the hospital run by EMI in Kota and even the nursing staff and doctors on duty were not given protection,” Dr. Choudhary said.
