INDIA: CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA FEAR VIOLENT CHRISTMAS
Hindu extremists move to stop yuletide celebrations as suffering in
Kandhamal continues.
Christians in Orissa state are anticipating Christmas with fear as
Hindu extremists have called for a state-wide bandh, or forced shut-
down on all sectors of society, on Dec. 25 – a move that could provide
Hindu extremists the pretext for attacking anyone publicly celebrating
the birth of Christ. The state’s chief minister has said there should
be no such shut-down but stopped short of prohibiting the Hindu
extremists’ plan, and the Hindu extremist umbrella organization Sangh
Parivar has vowed to press ahead with it, reported newspaper Outlook
India on Nov. 20.
Though such shut-downs were declared illegal by India’s Supreme Court
in 1998, the president of the Laxmanananda Saraswati Condolence
Society (SLSSS) sent a threatening notice to the Orissa government on
Nov. 15, warning that the Hindu extremist group would impose a bandh
on Christmas unless the state government arrested those who murdered
Hindu leader Laxmanananda Saraswati on Aug. 23. Ratnakar Chaini,
president of SLSSS, called for the shut-down in a massive rally in
Delhi on Nov. 15.
Inflammatory speeches at the rally by Chaini and others led Christians
to believe the shut-down would serve as the pretext for another spate
of violence against those publicly celebrating Christmas. At the same
time, in Orissa’s Kandhamal district, more deaths of Christians have
been reported in the past two weeks.
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