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source: Anil Kumar, blogspot, Aug 31, 2008
On August 29, 2008, all Roman Catholic educational institutions across
India remained closed for the day. The decision to close down all
catholic-run schools was taken on the directives of the Catholic
Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) after consultation with different
churches.
August 29 was Friday, and no national holiday was
declared on that day. Then, why did CBCI decide to give a holiday to
the school children?
It was "protesting the communal violence on Christians" in the Indian state of Orissa.
Yes,
Orissa is undergoing communal tension and violence and Hindu-Christian
riots after the murder of 80 year old Hindu monk Swami Lakshmanananda
Saraswati allegedly by a group of armed Christian terrorists.
Although
it is a law and order problem of the Orissa state government,
missionaries have every right to express their views. Everybody in
India, a liberal democracy, has a right to register his or her peaceful
protest on any public matter. CBCI missionaries could register their
feelings about the communal violence in hundreds of other ways. But why
did they chose to involve innocent children in this highly poilitical
and religious exercise?
What if missionaries own a big airlines
company, road transport network, shipping unit, postal network etc.?
Would they have stopped all of these services to "register their
protest"?
Yes. that is the typical missionary mind! Most of the
missionaries are experts not only in converting people but also in
converting every situation to their advantage by crying wolf and
unleashing huge, systematic propaganda. History is full of such stories.
Just
one example. Some years ago, two nuns were allegedly raped in Jabua of
Madhya Pradesh state. The nuns complained that some local Hindu
activists had raped them. Immeadiately senior missionaries screamed
that Hindus were raping nuns all over India. The news got international
attention and very soon became a hot topic all over the world. Big
protests were planned and undertaken. Later, after the investigation,
it was turned out to be a fradulent charge. The nuns were actually
molested by some local Christian activists, over an internal issue. But
Hindus got all the blame! That is the typical missionary-bluff.
What
happened in Orissa? Swamy Lakshmananannda, a well-known, highly
respectable Hindu spiritual leader of Orissa's Kandhmal district, who
also belonged to Vishva Hindu Parishad, was preventing Hindus from
becoming Christians. He was a big threat to missionary campaigns.
On August 23, a Krishna Janmashtami Day, Swamiji was preparing to worship Lord Krishna in his ashram. According to reports, "a group of 30-40 armed assailants surrounded the place. Eyewitnesses said about four of the assailants carried AK-47s and many others had revolvers. The assailants tied down the two guards, and gagged them. They then sought out the Swamiji within the premises and opened fire on him. The recovered bullets show they were from an AK-47, the police said. The assailants then warned the guards not to raise an alarm and fled the scene."
Police
initially suspected Maoist- terrorists. But nobody in the area believes
that. It was a known fact that the Swamiji had a threat from the local
Christian conversion-mafia. He had repeatedly lodged police complaints
about his threat perceptions. Hindu-Christian communal clash has
started after his brutal murder.
Missionaries have a right to
tell their own version of the story. But they do not have any right to
politicize the innocent school children for their own religious
purposes.
Karnataka Government has already issued notices to
aided Christian institutions for the illegal closure of schools. But
the state's Congress leaders have come to the rescue of missionaries.
Their take: You cannnot issue notices to missionary schools just
beacuse they take aid from the state. They can do anything. They have
every right to register their protest even by closing the schools they
run.
The law is very clear. According to the landmark judgment given by the Supreme Court on October 31, 2002, the
right to administer minority educational institution is not absolute.
The court has held that all aided institutions could be subject to
regulatory measures by the state. It was a 11-judge Constitution Bench,
headed by the then Chief Justice, B.N. Kirpal, and also, an unanimous
verdict. The apex court had also said that states could apply
regulations even to unaided minority institutions to achieve
educational excellence. As
per the law, all aided minority schools should take non-minority
students as well. The percentage of such students is fixed by the
concerned state or university. But the Congress Party, headed by a Roman Catholic, wants to find itself with the law-breakers!
It
is highly condemnable act on the part of the Catholic Church. Nobody
with clear conscience and morality would use children to register a
sectarian protest, for that mater, any protest. At this age, they have
a right to receive non-partisan education in a scietific way.
A
child's mind should not get corrupted. But CBCI is behaving like
Jamat-e-Islami and Tablig-e-Jamaat. After turning St. Stephen's College
of Delhi into a Christian Deoband, the emboldened CBCI is perhaps
getting ready to create Christian Madrassas out of Catholic Schools.
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Christian Terrorism 
