Mangalore Diocese Resolves to Fight Justice Somasekhara Report


Joseph Dais

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A Catholic prays before the broken crucifix at Adoration chapel on the first anniversary of the outbreak of anti-Christian violence in Mangalore. Mangalore diocese says it will challenge a recent government inquiry clearing Karnataka state authorities and Hindu extremists of involvement in attacks on Christians in 2008. “We will communicate our protest to the president and prime minister,” Bishop Aloysius Paul D’Souza of Mangalore said. He was speaking after a group of legal experts, thinkers and lay and religious leaders met in Mangalore on Feb. 1 to study the inquiry report, released on January 28 by the Justice B.K. Somashekhara Commission. “We will also file a writ in the High Court as part of our legal battle against the unjust” report, the prelate added. The Church and social activists accuse Hindu extremists of attacking at least 27 Christian sites in the southern Indian state.
 

The attacks began in Mangalore after Christians allegedly distributed leaflets which contained derogatory remarks against Hindu gods. Father Assisi D’Almeida, a lawyer who represented Christians during the commission proceedings, said the inquiry failed to fulfill its main job of finding those responsible. Melwyn P. Noronha, a lawyer who represented Christians during commission proceedings, urged Christians to accept several of the inquiry’s findings and recommendations. The commission recommended action against police for victimizing some parishioners in Mangalore. It also blamed one Hindu extremist group for attacks on some of the churches. It also called for a special prosecutor to investigate an attack on a cloistered convent in Mangalore. Noronha, however, slammed the commission for recommending an anti-conversion law in Karnataka. “It has given some sweets before inflicting heavy bitterness,” he said.

AP State Christian Minority Finance Corporation Meet

The Andhra Pradesh State Christian Minority Finance Corporation (APSCMFC), which is only one of its kind in the country exclusively for the Christians, held its third Advisory Council meeting on January 28, 2011 at Hotel Minerva Grand, Secunderabad. Some of the Bishops and Heads of Churches who are members of the Council and special invitees including priests, Christian officials and retired officers participated in the meeting. Mr J.R. Sudheer, the Managing Director of APSCMFC, presented the report of the activities undertaken by the Corporation.

The on-going developmental programmes of the APSCMFC like the Christian mass marriages for the poor, scholarships and tuition fees for students, self-employment and income generating schemes, coaching for competitive examinations and civil services, and other youth development projects are gaining popularity. The APSCMFC has recently grounded new schemes such as the financial assistance for the construction and equipment of Christian hospitals, schools, orphanages, old age homes, community halls and youth centers. As part of its programme for the promotion of Christian Culture, state sponsored Christmas celebrations were hosted in all the districts in the State by the District Collectors for the first time, besides the Hi-Tea being hosted by the Chief Minister on the eve of Christmas at the state capital for last 15 years.

The legal fight is being waged for the two schemes, subsidy to the pilgrimage to the Holy Land and financial assistance for the construction of churches, which are suspended due to the stay orders of the High Court in the cases filed by the Hindutva elements. The Advisory Council suggested taking legal recourse to obtain grant-in-aid and permanent minority status certificates to the Christian educational institutions. Various schemes available in the department of Sarva Sikhsa Abiyan   (Rajiv Gandhi Vidya Mission), now coming under the purview of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, are to be obtained for Christian schools.

Discussion was held on the formation of inter-denominational committees on burial grounds in municipalities and the felicitation of eminent Christians excelling in different fields. Other matters regarding strengthening the APSCMFC and allotment of land by the Government for developing a state-level Christian Community Center, a resource and research facility, were deliberated upon. A meeting with the Chief Minister was sought to be fixed to continue the dialogue on the pending issues of the Christian Minority. The meeting elicited good participation and called for more involvement from the members of the Advisory Council and other leaders of the Christian community in the State.

- Fr Anthoniraj Thumma, Executive Secretary, A.P. Federation of Churches (APFC),

Supreme Court: Haj Subsidy Constitutional
 

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition challenging the constitutional validity of the Haj Committee Act, which provides for grant of a government subsidy for pilgrimage every year. A Bench of Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra rejected the contention by Prafull Goradia, former BJP Rajya Sabha member, who said such a grant violated Articles 14 and 15 and in particular Article 27 (freedom as to payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion). The petitioner said he was a Hindu but he had to pay direct and indirect taxes, part of whose proceeds went for the Haj pilgrimage, which was done only by Muslims. For the Haj, “the Indian government grants a subsidy in air fare,” which it could not do. An estimated Rs. 280 crore annually incurred by the government for the pilgrimage was not only unconstitutional but also a severe drain on the taxpayers’ money. Rejecting this argument, the Bench said India was a country of great diversity and “if we wish to keep our country united, we need to have tolerance and equal respect for all communities and sects. It is due to the wisdom of our founding fathers that we have a Constitution, which is secular in character and which caters for the tremendous diversity in our country.”
 

Secular state

The Bench said: “When India became independent in 1947 there were partition riots in many parts of the subcontinent, and a large number of people were killed, injured and displaced. Religious passions were inflamed at that time, and when passions are inflamed it is difficult to keep a cool head. It is the greatness of our founding fathers that under the leadership of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru they kept a cool head and decided to declare India a secular country instead of a Hindu country. This was a very difficult decision at that time because Pakistan had declared itself an Islamic state and hence there must have been tremendous pressure on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and our other leaders to declare [India] a Hindu state. It is their greatness that they resisted this pressure and kept a cool head and rightly declared India to be a secular state. This is why despite all its tremendous diversity India is still united. In this subcontinent, with all its tremendous diversity (because 92 per cent of the people living in the subcontinent are descendants of immigrants), the only policy which can work and provide for stability and progress is secularism and giving equal respect to all communities, sects, denominations, etc.”
 

On the petitioner’s contention that Article 27 was violated, the court said: “If only a relatively small part of any tax collected is utilised for providing some conveniences or facilities or concessions to any religious denomination, that would not be violative of Article 27. It is only when a substantial part of the tax is utilised for any particular religion would Article 27 be violated.” The Bench pointed out that the State government incurred some expenditure for the Kumbh Mela and the Centre, for facilitating Indian citizens to go on pilgrimage to Mansarover, etc. Similarly some State governments provided facilities to Hindus and Sikhs to visit temples and gurdwaras in Pakistan. “These are very small expenditures in proportion to the entire tax collected. Thus there is no discrimination. Parliament has the legislative competence to enact the Haj Committee Act.”
 

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