After a lull of many month the anti Christian violence is back on the pages of newspapers. Recently (March- May 2000) there have been several acts of burning of biblical literature, attacks on nuns and attack on missionary insitutions. Interestingly while the parliamentary affairs minister Mr. Pramod Mahajan assured that Govt. has the constitutional obligation to safeguard the minorities, Mr. Vajpayee in his characteristic cover-up statement went on to condemn the anti Christian violence also assuring that guilty will be brought to the book. It should be noted that just a month and a half ago, before this second round of anti Christian violence began Bajarang Dal held its convention in UP and sent its usual 'clarion call' of the need for the awakening of Hindus against the conspiracy of conversion activities of the missionaries, which according to them are anti-national activities. On the top of all this the VHP, which has played a major role in anti -Christian propaganda, which preceded this violence, vice- president GiriRaj Kishore not only said that this violence is being blown out of proportion by the media but also demanded a probe into these episodes.

This violence suddenly came up on the social scene from late 97. In 1996 there were seven cases of anti Christian violence which went up to 24 in 1997 and 120 in 1998.  Gujrat was the major theater of this violence where under the BJP rule the VHP and Bajarang Dal had a field day and they went on 'merrily' to burn the Bibles, intimidate the tribals whose girls decided to get married to Muslim boys, went on to chase the missionaries with the slogan "Hindu Jago- Christi Bhago"(Awake Hindus, Pack up Christians). Around this time calls were also given "Christians "Quit India". In the wake of all these happenings the Gujrat Deputy Commissioner of Police Mr. C.P.Singh in an interview given to Teesta Setalvad (Communalism Combat Oct. 98) said that "One thing was clear in the pattern of incidents . It was the activists of the VHP and Bajarang Dal who were taking law into their hands, which posed serious threat to the peace in Gujarat. Many of the attacks on the minorities took place after these organizations had whipped up local passions against conversions (by Christian missionaries and alleged forced inter-religious marriages…our investigation revealed that in most cases these were entirely baseless allegations.

Around this time to put an cover on the deeds of its 'brother organizations' BJP's mask Mr. Vajpayee visited Gujarat and while covering up the deeds of his siblings from VHP and Bajarang Dal demanded a National debate on conversions.

The culmination of the first round took place with the ghastly murder of Pastor Graham Stewart Stains and his two minor sons Philip and Timothy (Ages 9 and 7 respectively). President K.R. Narayanan was so much shaken by this event that he went in to call this as the incident belonging to the "world's inventory of black deeds". As per him it was a monumental aberration which went against the traditions cherished by all Indians. Pastor Stains was torched to death by the Bajarang Dal Activist Dara Singh who could be nabbed after a long delay, mainly due to the protection provided by his organizations.  Even before any investigations could take place three of the ministers of the BJP led coalition rushed to the spot and in an instant investigation concluded that murder is a part of international conspiracy to destabilize the BJP led coalition. Wadhawa commission conceded that Pastor Stains was not involved in conversions. Between 1981 to 1991 the percentage of Christians went up marginally from 0.299 to 0.307 during the same time the percentage of Hindus went up from 95.10 to 97.62 (Wadhva Commission Report). But this commission failed to take all the evidence of Dara Singh's links with different wings of Sangh Parivar. Special Investigation Team headed by Padman Sing pointed out that "Dara Singh was an activist supporter of BD. CBI- Orrissa Police report concluded that Dara Singh attended RSS camps at Maliposi,Champua and Ghategaonareas of Mayurbhanj district. (The Week, Sept.5th 1999). There are many more evidences of the links of Dara with different wings of SP.

The intense anti Christian propaganda which preceded this phase of violence was based on the falsification that Christian missionaries are using fraud and inducement to convert the gullible Adivasis. The decline in the percentage of Christian population can not vindicate this baseless charge. As per the census of India 1991 and 1971 the population of Christians in India stands as follows- 1771- 2.6%, 1981-2.44%, 1991- 2.32 %. The SP needs to be 'complimented 'for its 'brilliant' application of Gobbelesian technique. At a time when the christian population is actually declining it can ;successfully' inject the myth in popular psyche that conversions are are on the rise. And this is then used to rouse the sentiments and emotions of average people to generate the hatred against the Christians.

The anti Christian violence came up as a part of the SP campaign to get bigger foothold amongst the Adivasis. It is in this remote areas that the dedicated missionaries from decades and centuries are busy with their social work. SP's aim is to arrest the secularization process which is marginally helped due to the educational and health related activities of the missionaries. The violence which has been cultivated has passed through different conveyor belts. The RSS manufactures the basic hatred philosophy, BJP applies this in the electoral arena, VHP specializes in the vehement anti minority propaganda and BD 'solves' the problems by the liberal use of trident and other associated implements of Religion based politics of Hindutva.

With most of the anti Christian crime getting exonerated by the state machinery ruled by SP member BJP, and dominated by the silent and violent supporters of SP  the word has gone round that one can get away after attacking Christians. So now even the BD probably does not have to 'spend' its energy for the Hindutva agenda of minority bashing, as now all and sundry lumpens and criminals of different hues and shades have discovered the soft target in Christians. That is probably the reason as to why now even different denominations of SP also can confidently ask for the probe in to something which had been their major activity till quiet late.