M A I N   N E W S

SC directive to Orissa govt
‘Quit if you can’t protect the minorities’
R. Sedhuraman
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, January 5
The Supreme Court today directed the Orissa government to ensure protection of the Christian community in the state and asked the Centre to consult the state before taking any decision on the withdrawal of paramilitary forces.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan passed the order after Colin Gonsalves, counsel for the Cuttack Archbishop who has filed a PIL, informed the court that only “deceptive calm” was prevailing in Kandhmal district where anti-Christian violence occurred in August, September last year.

Gonsalves said the state government was offering only Rs 40 lakh for the reconstruction of about 140 damaged churches, against the estimated cost of Rs 6 crore. Also, the state was refusing compensation to several churches, which were 30-50 years old, raising questions on the ownership of the land.

Counsel KK Venugopal, appearing for the state government, said the churches should not be reconstructed on government or forest land. The court merely recorded their statements.

The court has been monitoring the law and order situation in Orissa since the violence erupted in the wake of assassination of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a VHP leader and head of a local ‘mutt’. Venugopal agreed with the petitioner that the situation was sensitive and “could flare up again”.

In the course of arguments, Justice Markandey Katju, who was part of the Bench, made oral observations such as: “What kind of government you are running in Orissa? Quit office, if you can't protect the minorities in a secular country… Both the Centre and the state government are equally responsible for protection of minorities.”

Venugopal sought a direction to the Centre not to carry out the phased withdrawal of paramilitary forces until the elections to the Assembly and the Lok Sabha were over. Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam said the Centre would deploy the forces “generously”. Justice P. Sathasivam was the other judge on the three-member Bench that heard the case.

Panel to review progress of its recommendations
Tension for Christians in Orissa still real: NCM
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 5
The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has said that the tension for Orissa’s Christians is still real.

Tens of thousands from the minority community, who were victimised during the recent anti-Christian violence in the state have not yet been rehabilitated, forcing the commission to undertake a review of the recommendations it made to the Orissa government following the riots this August. Violence erupted in Kandhamal after the killing of a local VHP seer, and later spread across the state.

Three months on, the commission has decided to revisit Orissa to take stock of the situation and see if any of its recommendations has been considered by the state government. In an exclusive interview with The Tribune today, NCM member Michael Pinto, who led the NCM team to Orissa post anti-minority violence, said several Christians were still living under the threat of conversion. “This is not acceptable. The matter of conversions falls under the purview of the Freedom of Religion Act already in force in Orissa.

The state government must enforce the Act and round up those who are violating it,” Pinto said, adding that the Christians in Kandhamal’s refugee camps were still being faced with the old, precarious choice between conversion and death. The NCM is undertaking a review of whether the Orissa government has enforced the Freedom of Religion Act, which, until September this year, had only two cases registered under it. Another issue on the commission’s mind is the investigation of registered criminal cases.

Strangely, out of 127 cases registered in the 2007 anti-Christian violence, only five were ever investigated, states the NCM report on Orissa violence. This year, the Orissa police registered 203 cases. The commission had asked the state to get investigating officers from outside to probe the pending cases on a timely basis.

Lastly, the commission wants to explore the possibility of setting up in Kandhamal the Mohalla committee system - the kind that came up in Mumbai post the riots driven by Babri Masjid demolition.

Nun identifies 2 rape accused

Cuttack: Over four months after she was allegedly raped during communal violence in Orissa’s Kandhamal district, a Catholic nun today finally identified two persons for involvement in the incident during a test identification parade, which was earlier deferred thrice.

The 29-year-old nun identified two persons from a line-up of 90 during the identification parade (TIP), which was held at high-security Choudwar jail here and not in Kandhamal following a high court direction after she sought a change of venue, a senior police officer said. While ten persons had been arrested in connection with the case, 80 others were also paraded before the nun during the TIP, sources said adding that the exercise lasted for about 90 minutes. Though the TIP was to be held last Saturday, the authorities deferred the exercise till today citing “unnecessary media attention”, they said.

A court in Baliguda had fixed dates for the TIP twice earlier, but the nun, who had left Orissa after the incident, failed to turn up while seeking change of venue of the exercise saying she did not want to visit Kandhamal again.

The nun, who arrived at the jail escorted by crime branch sleuths and was accompanied by three other women, believed to be Church representatives, first spotted four persons from among a crowd of ten arrested men and finally zeroed in on two of them, they said. The nun was allegedly raped at K. Nuagaon in strife-torn Kandhamal during the Orissa bandh on August 25 after prominent VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati was gunned down on August 23, 2008 at his Jalespota ashram. — PTI