Top Shiv Sena leaders held

NEW DELHI, Nov 2 (PTI) — In a major crackdown on the eve of the papal visit, the police arrested top leaders of the Shiv Sena, including its northern India chief Jai Bhagwan Goyal, in raids across the Capital late last night, police sources said today.

Besides Mr Goyal, the police arrested Mr Om Dutt Sharma, the party’s state vice-president, Mr Ravinder Kumar Bedi, propaganda secretary, and Mr Ramakant Sharma, a state executive member, the sources said.

The detentions were described by top police officials as "preventive" and may continue till the Pope leaves the country.

Meanwhile, Mr Goyal alleged the party’s active workers across the Capital were being "harassed" and scores had been detained, a charge denied by the police.

The police action follows a protest demonstration by the sainiks yesterday against the papal visit and alleged conversions carried out by Christian missionaries.

The activists led by Mr Goyal had set fire to an effigy of "conversions". The Sena had earlier threatened to stage demonstrations against Pope John Paul II during his visit beginning on November 5 if he did not apologise for alleged atrocities committed on Hindus by the Church during Portuguese rule in Goa, Vasai, Kerala and other places.

"This is a democratic country and we have a right to express our reservations on the papal visit and we have been doing it peacefully," Mr Goyal said from detention, even as he warned that "sainiks were seething with anger and I will not be able to stop them."

Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has said Pope John Paul II has "no problems" in apologising for alleged atrocities committed by the Church in the past but will not do so under "duress or force".

The Church today conceded it had failed to wipe out untouchability and other social evils from the Christian community "due to the all-pervasive Hindu caste system from which no religion can escape."

"It has always been our position that the Pope has no problems in seeking an apology, if he finds a need for it. Asking for forgiveness does not make him any smaller," Church spokesman Dr Dominic Emmanuel said.

He was responding to repeated demands being made by Sangh Parivar outfits, including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, that the supreme spiritual leader of Catholics should apologise for alleged atrocities committed by the Church in Goa, Vasai and Kerala during Portuguese rule in the 16th century.

Dr Emmanuel, however, made it clear the pontiff would not apologise "under duress or force... he has to be convinced."

Asked whether the Pope would seek forgiveness during his coming visit to India, he said, "His Holiness may, if he feels it is necessary. But generally a fact-finding mission is sent before any such apology is made".

The Shankaracharya of Dwarka and Jyotish Mutts has meanwhile said a papal apology for past atrocities on Hindus would be "meaningless" without putting an end to "fraudulent conversions" and charged the Sangh Parivar and the BJP with adopting "double standards" towards the Pope’s visit.

In an interview with PTI, Jagatguru Swami Swarupanand Saraswati, who was in the Capital recently, also termed as "humiliating" the Catholic Church’s decision to invite the "Shankaracharya of a non-existing mutt" to the multi-religious meet to be addressed by Pope John Paul II during his visit to India.

"First of all it is wrong to force anyone to apologise. It should be a voluntary act and secondly even if the Pope apologises, it would be meaningless so long as his missionaries continue to carry out conversions through fraudulent means including inducements," the seer said.

Moreover, the Catholics alone were not responsible for the conversions. "The Protestants and other denominations are perhaps doing more harm," the pontiff said.

Accusing the government and the Sangh Parivar of adopting "double standards" vis-a-vis the papal visit, the Shankaracharya said, "They only want to draw political mileage. On the one hand, the BJP-led government is treating the Pope as a state guest and on the other their affiliates in the Parivar are crying hoarse against the visit. Who are they trying to fool."

The Shankaracharya said if the Sangh Parivar was sincere about its protests it should first exert pressure on the government to ban conversions and stop inflow of foreign funds to Christian missionaries in the country.

Stating that he was not against the papal visit, Swami Swarupanand Saraswati said, "Too much attention is being given to the visit. Outside India, people and media just ignore the visit of Hindu leaders."

He, however, said the supreme spiritual leader of Catholics would do well to ask his followers to stop conversions by "fraudulent means and inducements."