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Govt still targeting, victimising Christians in Gujarat: report

The anti-Christian violence in the Dangs district in Gujarat in December last year was conceived and planned as far back as in 1990, according to the findings of an independent fact-finding team.

The report has been prepared by a team led by Justice Hosbet Suresh, former judge of the Bombay high court, who had earlier probed the Bombay riots. The team comprising academicians, journalists, lawyers and activists was brought together by the National Alliance of Women.

Releasing the report to the media, the team showed the video recording of an interview with a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker, Vijay More. He admitted that the systematic violence against Christians in the district was not a sudden outburst but carefully planned over a long period of time.

The team, that visited the district in January and March, went around the demolished areas and spoke to a cross-section of Christian and Hindu leaders and workers.

In fact, through various moves, the government is still targeting and victimising Christians in Gujarat, the team said. Due to this the community continues to remain traumatised, Justice Suresh said.

It also said the demolition of Babri Masjid, the attack on Christians and the triple murder of Australian-born Graham Stewart Staines and his sons were all part of the strategy of the Sangh Parivar to divide the people.

Castigating the Gujarat and the Union government, it said the role of the state government was openly biased and arbitrary while the Union government had failed to fulfil its statutory and constitutional duties.

''Particularly reprehensible was the role of the Gujarati press that was biased and communally inflammatory,'' the report said and cited excerpts from various newspapers.

UNI

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