The Hindu : Parivar targets Christian service organisation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 31, 2002

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Parivar targets Christian service organisation

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR DEC. 30. The Kota-based Emmanuel Church of India has once again become the target of attack by the Sangh Parivar. The latest of the offensives against M.A. Thomas, head of the Emmanuel Mission which manages schools and leprosy homes in various parts of northern India, from the BJP-RSS-VHP combine has been a case under IPC 124 filed on the Christmas Day this year and a string of demonstrations demanding his arrest.

Dr. Thomas, a Padmashri and archbishop of the Emmanuel Churches, earned the wrath of the Parivar this time with his alleged reference to the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister as "beggars''. The reference was made at the Christmas eve programme in which the senior Minister in the Gehlot Government, Shanti Dhariwal, was also present.

But the case registered against him at the Udyog Nagar police station in Kota is for the cartographic mistake of publishing a brochure with a map of India which had a portion of Jammu and Kashmir missing. Now the Emmanuel Mission says that the map — in which the PoK was missing — was taken out of a floppy provided by the software company, Thumbs Plus and was used inadvertently.

This is not the first time that the BJP and other front organisations of Hindutva have been targeting Emmanuel Mission institutions. The trouble had started over a decade ago with the Mission acquiring land at Raipura in Kota which the local BJP leaders alleged that it belonged to the Forest Department. As the Mission added on to its number of schools and orphanages over a period the criticism intensified.

The honour of Padamashri, bestowed on him three years ago, added to the woes of Dr. Thomas, as the local BJP and the RSS activists demanded its withdrawal. The previous year they stormed one of the orphanages run by the Mission in Kota allegedly to "rescue'' some of the young inmates.

``I never called the Prime Minister or anyone a beggar. I had introduced myself as a beggar who goes abroad and beg for money to look after orphans and the destitute. Then I said these political persons also do some kind of begging be it from the World Bank or other international funding agencies,'' Dr. Thomas told The Hindu on phone from Kota.

``As for the distorted map, I have apologised for the mistake. It was not intentional. We have withdrawn all the brochures,'' Dr. Thomas said. "There are demonstrations against me daily. On December 28 the effigies of mine and Mr. Dhariwal were burnt. Am I a demon? All the cases filed against me over a period have been non-bailable in nature,'' he said.

Mahesh Vijayvargiya, president of Kota district BJP, when contacted over phone, said, ``He is a disturbing element. Being Christian is no excuse for doing such things,'' he said referring to the case of the distorted map.

"Dr. Thomas is a learned person and he should know how the official map of India looks. He should be made to pay for his mistake,'' Mr. Vijayvargiya said.

Madan Dilwar, BJP MLA from Atru in the neighboring Baran district, who is behind the present campaign accuses that the Mission had excluded the Pak-occupied Kashmir from the map of India to help Pakistan's claim over the PoK. The role of local politics in the whole episode is obvious as Mr. Dilwar, a former president of the State Bajrang Dal, never misses a chance to embarrass his sworn political enemy, Mr. Dhariwal.

The latest of the incidents involving Dr. Thomas has made the Global Council of Indian Christians to write to the National Minorities Commission and the National Human Rights Commission seeking protection for him. The national convener of GCIC, Sajan K. George, in a statement alleged that the attempts at "minority-bashing'' in Rajasthan by the Sangh Parivar was aimed at "replicating the Gujarat experience''.

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