(Committee for Communal Amity)
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Campaign and Advocacy for Human Rights
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Centre for Study of Society and Secularism

Summary of the report

On 9th May at 8.30 P.M., in Abhona village of Nasik, while a small congregation of  Christians was watching a film ‘Jesus Christ’ a group of youth came charging in with the slogans of Jai Bajrang Bali, Jai Shivaji and Hindu Dharma Sanatan Dharma. They broke the tube lights, beat up whosoever they could catch hold of, in the process injuring three people including a women, burnt the mattresses, three motor cycles and the screen on which film was being shown. While most of the media reported it in this manner, a section of media projected as if it was an intra-group rivalry in which those watching the film themselves did this act. Mr. Munde the ex-Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra said that this is a local response to the forced conversions by the missionaries. He also said that the land is illegal, the construction is illegal and electricity is being stolen without any payment.

To understand the incident properly EKTA along with Campiagn and Advocay for Human Right and Center for study of Society and Secularism constituted a citizens inquiry team to investigate the incident.

The committee visited Nasik and the Abhona village twice and met the victims of the incident, the boys who were apprehended, their parents, the local pastor, the police officials and leaders of different political parties and talked to VHP leader on phone.

Findings:

Abhona is a small village with the population of close to 6 7 thousands. This is a fairly prosperous village situated close to Dangs in Gujarat, with no Christians in the village. It has trade as the major activity. The place of attack is a girls hostel (Age5-12) belonging to all the religions. It is half constructed at the moment. The land transfer and the construction formalities are proper as per the documents. On the fateful evening an all Christian congregation was watching the film ‘Jesus Christ; when the crowd of youth descended on the site and rampaged the place. The women , Rajani Ashok Budha, who incurred the severe injury also heard after sometime some boys shouting “Vinya, enough, lets go”. Two other men were also injured in the attack. The boys who were arrested and later released told us that they came to know that the film showed clips which were insulting to Hindu Gods. None of them said that they saw the film. Also this charge was repeated by most of the political leaders of BJP, VHP, Shiv Sena and surprisingly none of them had seen the film. The boys and the same leaders also said that the missionaries are indulging in forced conversions while none of them could cite a single case of forced conversions. Some people in the village said that Vineet Mahajan was leader of the youth and that he belonged to RSS. Also Shiv Sena leader did tell us Vineet had RSS, VHP literature with him.

Mr. Jagganath Pawar who sold the land to the ‘Love in Action Group’ did so by choice thwarting the pressure from A.T.Pawar (Minister)to sell the land to him for petrol pump. He gave us copies of all the papers. The pastors belonging to different groups told us that in Nasik in last 10 years there might have been close to 350 conversions, but not by force. Also only few of them go for preaching to others while most of them concentrate in the routine intra-community activities.

The committee concludes that it is one more in the series of Anti-Christian attacks which are going all over the country. In this case the youth had been instigated on the rumors that the anti-Hindu clippings are being shown and that Christian missionaries are indulging in forced conversions. Both these are false propaganda. The links of leader of the youth with the RSS though nebulous are very clear. Now to distract the attention from the real episode the question of legality of land, construction and electricity is being raised as a deliberate move.
 
 
 

Report of The Citizen’s Inquiry Committee for the investigation on Attack on the Girls Hostel At Abhona, Nasik District

On 9th May at around 8.30 P.M. 100 youth in the age group of 18-23 attacked the congregation of the people who were watching a film on the life of Jesus Christ. Most of the media, based on their investigation reported that this was one more of the attacks, which are going on against the Christian community. But the a section of papers reported a different version. One of these versions was also presented by the ex-Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Mr. Gopinath Munde, who visited the village, and went on to say that the attack had nothing to do with the VHP or Bajarang Dal and that this was a case of mere intra group rivalry, that the land on which the hostel has been built is illegally possed by the Christian group, that the construction is illegal, that the electricity used there was a theft, that the film which was being shown was offensive to the sentiments of Hindus and that the arrest of youth for was unwarrented.

In this context to unravel the truth EKTA (Committee for Communal Amity) constituted a citizens committee to go into all the aspects of the event and to particularly examine the following points:
1. Whether any political or quasi-political group instigated the attack on the Christians?
2. Whether the police action in arresting the youth was unwarranted or was adequate?
3. Whether forcible conversions are going on in Abhona and the nearby places as alleged by Mr.Munde.
4. Whether the land, construction and electric connections are illegal.

The following team was constituted

1. Masood Pesh Imam- Editor, The New Break, Kalyan
2. Maria Doss- Campaign for Human Rights and Advocacy)
3. Ankush Bhoge- Build
4. Asad Bin Saif- Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
5. Ram Puniyani- EKTA( Committee for Communal Amity), Convener
 

Members of the committee visited Nasik town and Abhona village twice, first on 13th and 14th and then on 24th and 25th of May. The members also visited Vani police station. They met the Dy. SP, local Bishop and pastors, the victims of the attack, the leaders of BJP, NCP, Shiv Sena and the Congress. They talked to VHP leader on phone and also attended the meeting of the local Christian community, which was convened to discuss the attack on the Christian congregation.

Findings

1. Abhona is a small village with a population of around 6-7 thousand people. It is the central place in that area, it is the prime center of trade and commerce and large number of the residents are engaged in trade. It  appears very prosperous because the area has well-tilled land and the water is available in plenty, which is utilized for sowing Sugarcane, Onions and Chillies which are sent to factories for the extraction of the sugar and other two are sent in the larger towns. River Tapi flows from outside of the village towards the Dang District of Gujarat which is hardly 30 kilometers away from there. The constituency has been declared as reserved because of its tribal domination. There are no Christians in the village. The place of attack is located nearly ½ kilometers from the center of the village. There is only one house opposite the site and there is no resident in the stretch of land between the center of the village and the place of attack.

2. The place of attack is a plot of land where the construction of the hostel for girls between the age group of 5-12 is half-complete. The ground floor work is complete with 4 dormitory type rooms and the toilets and baths. When we visited the site the first thing, which struck us was the remains of the fire near the building and the pieces of glass scattered around the empty 15x9 (Approximate) area.

3. The SRP personnel were occupying the building. We wanted to talk to them but they directed us to PSI Shirsat and Dy SP Shekhar for the police version of the incident. Then we talked to the Pastor’s  (Rev. Padley) staff on the site. Ashar Bhika Ingale gave us the detailed version of the incident. He showed us the 7/12-land document in the name of Rev. Padley and also the architect’s papers, which were duly cleared by the local authorities  (Annexures1,2). He said that Rev. Padley’s ‘Love in Action’ group has been running a girls hostel from last around 10 years in rented premises. This place has been recently constructed and now they have been lodging the girls here. The hostel has girls from all the communities. The charges of the Hostel are nominal and quite affordable by even the poor people.

4. The function, which was in progress, was organised by “The Evangelical Allaince Christian Church”. This was their 45th annual function for there devotees in different places of Nasik town. The function was from 8th May to 11th May, and was attended b around 70- 100people.Mostly they have devotional programs and community interaction. All those attending are the followers of some or the other Church in the area. On that fateful night also it was the gathering of the believers of Christ, around 70 of them, most of them being women. It was 2nd day of the function and the congregation was watching the film on the life of Jesus Christ. This film has been shown on D.D. some time ago. A projector was being used. During the screening of film 4 youth came and sat for some time. Then they left and shortly a motor cyclist came and halted outside the compound and made lot of noise by raising the accelerator of his vehicle. Soon he left and a big group of youth came shouting Jai Bhavani, Jai Shivaji, Jai Hanuman and Hindu Dharma-Sanatan Dharma. When they came the projector was on and they were changing the film from part 2 to part3.

5. The youth first broke the tube lights due to which it became dark all over. Then they pulled down the screen, collected some mattresses and put them on fire along with the pandal. The other items put in the fire were the film projector and some chairs. Meanwhile they attacked the mobile van (belonging to Grammin Pustak Vitrak Sanstha), that had come there to sell the books etc. Immediately Ingale(The supervisor on site) rang up the police. Police arrived after ½ an hour. In the attack Rajani Ashok Budha was seriously injured and had to be hospitalised. Two other men also got injured -Jonathan Chavan, and Ambadas Chowdhary. As soon as attack began most of the people started running helter skelter mainly towards the hills. The youth also ran away in no time, much before the police could arrive.

6. We met two of the victims of the attack Rajani Ashok Budha and Jonathan Chavan. Mrs Budha said that she riased her hands to protect her child who was sleeping, and was hurt by a sharp object flung by one of the youth. She got a cut, which required six stitches. Mr. Jonathan Chavan got the lathi and fist blows along with two other men. Both Mrs Budha and Mr. Chavan herd the shouts of the attackers. Later when the process went on for sometime some of them shouted in Marathi to the effect, “Vinya, enough, lets run away.” During this time Mrs. Budha took shelter in a room and locked herself inside along with her children. Many a people ran towards the hill and returned only when the police arrived.
7. We went to Vani police station to meet Mr. Shekhar, the Dy SP. He incidentally refuted the charge made by local BJP leaders that the boys were denied to appear in the exams. As per him only one of them was to appear in the exam for which he was escorted and he did appear in the exam. About other information he directed us to meet the SP Mr. B. More, in Nasik. We did go to his office where one Mr. Khairnar a PI told us that Mr. More may be available after one hour. He gave us a phone number to contact him for the necessary appointment. We kept ringing the number but without any response. During our second visit we again approached him but it was told that he is away and no body else is authorised to give the version to citizens or the press.

8. We attended the meeting of local Christian community called by the Bishop. Over 100 men and women attended this. They were disturbed but calm. The Bishop pointed out the clear correlation between the rising anti-Christian campaign unleashed by parties like BJP, Shiv Sena and their affiliates like VHP and Bajarang Dal, and this incidence is also one of those. He demanded a ban on organisations affiliated to Sangh Parivar. In the meeting there were many who had some more information to offer. One of them told us about a recent incidence in Peth in which the police complaint was not registered in one of the road accident case in which the Shiv Sainiks beat up the motor cyclist.

9. In our visit to the village we could meet

a. The youth who were arrested by the police. The arrests had occurred late in the night. The youth Ashok Madhukar Jangam (age 24), a FY, B.A. student, Deepak Amarsingh Age(19) a clerk in a society both denied involvement in any attack and said they do not know anything about the episode. But they did say that a film, which insulted the feelings of Hindus, was being shown. This version was to repeat regularly with all the leaders of VHP, BJP, And Shiv Sena. But they all denied having seen any such film and their versions were based on hearsay.

b. We met Vineet Mahajan, whom one of the villagers (who wanted not to be quoted) called as leader of the youth and that he belonged to RSS. Vineet (Vinya) was looking very jubilant and triumphant, he denied any knowledge or involvement with the episode. The parents of boys were also present during our interviews but they also showed any ignorance of the episode.
 

c. The local Shiv Sena Pramukh Mr. Aher Karbhari and Abhona Shiv Sena Chief Mr. Suneel Karavande were present during the interviews. Apart from repeating the usual hearsay and charges against the conversions they did point out that Vineet Mahajan had the RSS/VHP literature in his pocket. Another source later told us that not only Vineet is a part of RSS/ VHP but also that he has been trained in the OTC (Officers training Camp of RSS). It was also pointed out that Vineet who is regarded as leader of the youth has been in Nasik for a long time and had come back to Abhona after few months.

10. Eknath Shete of VHP repeated the charges against Christian missionaries and said    that youth accidentally discovered the humiliation of Hindu Gods in the film being shown by the congregation and must have got infuriated to take such a step.   Again he could not name anybody who had seen the film. Adv. Jayshree Dhond (BJP nasik District President) also had not seen the film neither could she cite any concrete example of ‘forced conversion’ but was vociferous in her condemnation of the conversion activities of Christian missionaries. Her assertion was that her party does not mind the social work by the Christians but they are opposed to their missionary work. One Dr. Gangurde, BJP’s LokSabha candidate from Malegaon in the last elections happened to be in the office, and he had visited Abhona a day before. As per him some of those in the congregation objected to the humiliation of Hindu Gods in the film and so the whole process followed. Both of them could not cite any single case of forced conversion while vociferously condemning the missionaries for it most of the time.

11. Mr. Shivnath Khadbhani, NCP President of Nepad Talika, Nasik District on strongly refuted the charge that forced conversions are going on in the area.

12. 12.Reverand Martin Pakhare, Rev. Padley, and Rev. Arun Shinde gave us the rough figures of conversions in the area in last 10 years. In whole of Nasik district this figure does not exceed around 350. Most of the people who came in for conversion came, out of their own conviction. Few of these groups also preach, distribute literature about Christianity and do the group singing in public places, but they maintained that the charge ‘forced conversion’ is nothing but a way of defaming them. They felt that Mr. Munde has intimidated the police department because of which despite the serious charges against the boys, they have been released on bail. The pastors gave us the copies of all the papers proving the legality of the
a. Land
b. Construction
c. Applications for the light connection-, which incidentally has been held up due to, corrupt practices of the concerned office. From their side they have deposited the necessary money for electric connection(Quotation, test report, advance)
      (Annexure 3)

We also met Jaggannath Chinthu Pawar who had sold the land to the Church. He pointed out that he had bought the land from one Joshi in 1970. Also that he was approached by the current Minister Mr. A.T. Pawar for buying the same land for his petrol pump, but he refused. He preferred to sell it to a social cause like the Church which wanted to buy it for building a hostel. Incidentally Mr. Pawar’s son is married to a Christian doctor girl and the doctor couple on the insistence from Mr. Pawar have opened the hospital in the village against their own wish to open the same in the city. Now we understand from newspaper reports that the Shiv Sena-BJP dominated Gram Panchayat is demanding the return of the hostel land and also pressurizing the Doctor couple to close their hospital.

Disturbed by the dastardly attack the local Christian community took out a peaceful procession and demanded the
a. Justice and protection to Christian community
b. Arrest of Mr. Munde for his appreciation of the criminals who attacked the hostel and for the intimidation of police inspector and others on the spot.
c. Resignation of Mr. A.T.Pawar for his felicitation of the attackers.  Leaders of BJP, Shiv Sena, VHP and Mr. A.T. Pawar (NCP minister in the coalition govt.) celebrated the release of boys from the jail.

13. We met the Congress (I) president (Mr.Uttam Rao Kamble) who said that the members of Sangh Parivar to intimidate and persecute the Christian community are raising the bogey of conversions. He also felt that since the boys were involved and arrested under serious charges it is not proper to release them under the pressure from Mr. Munde. Mr. Niranajn Takle of Human Rights Dept. of Congress (I) was very bitter about the violation of the Human rights of Minorities. He informed the committee that there was RSS meeting in Nasik few months ago (Oct.99). As per him it is not a coincident that this attack has occurred after the meeting organized by RSS an Nasik and just before the BJP state convention in Nasik. He also felt that these cases need to be followed up properly.

Conclusions:

1.There are no forced conversions in the area. As such also the number of conversions is negligible. But all the same there are strong rumors about the same. When confronted with the request for the concrete name and instances there is silence on the part of the accusers, who are making such baseless propaganda for the political purpose, in consonance with the present agenda of Sangh Parivar.

2.The attack on the girl’s hostel in Abhona was well-planned one and not a spontaneous outburst of anger.

The village youth were instigated by spreading the rumor of insult of Hindu gods in the film being shown in the congregation.

3.It was an internal congregation and not meant to propagate to others. The film being shown was Jesus Christ, which does not have any offensive reference to Hindu Gods. This film has been shown on D.D. channel also.

4.Lot of rumours against the Christian missionaries are being spread deliberately. In most of the cases the spreader and believers of these rumors cannot cite any concrete evidence of their charge.

5.The attack followed the ‘classical’ pattern, which by now has been perfected by Sangh Parivar. Some volunteers are trained, indoctrinated and let loose to unleash the work of intimidation of the minorities. Since most of these crimes go unpunished, it is not difficult to mobilise the other unsuspecting youth for this work. The link between the parent organisation -RSS, VHP and BJP etc. is deliberately kept loose so that no blame can come on the parent organisation.

6.With many a BJP functionaries being in power they either provide a 'good' political and administrative cover to their followers who undertake these activities. In this case since the boys, for a change, were apprehended by the police, the ex-deputy Chief minister and Home minister rushed to the spot to intimidate the police authorities to ensure that minimum punishment is accorded to the criminals.

7.To distract the attention from the real attack and the culprits, the issue of legality of the land sale, construction and the electricity connection is being raised. Also it is abhorrent that the young idealistic doctor couple is being hounded from the village for the ‘crime’ of inter-religion marriage. On one hand we need doctors go and work in the villages but here communal vision is dictating the policies which need to be condemned.

8.In case of Abhona crime Vineet Mahajan’s role and his nebulous linkage to the RSS/ VHP is very clear.

9.Incidentlly we will like to record our disappointment with the SP and the collector’s office for lack of cooperation in giving any information to us. We feel the strong need to have a fresh look at the people’s right to information.

Recommendations:

1.General Backdrop:

The intense anti-Christian propaganda, which preceded anti Christian violence, is 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 tells another tale while quashing this baseless charge. As per the census of India the population of Christians in India stands as follows- 1971- 2.6%, 1981-2.44%, 1991- 2.32 %. At a time when the Christian population is actually declining, the myth has been popularised that conversions are on the rise. And this myth is now being 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 these remote areas that missionaries from decades and centuries are busy with their social work. SP’s aim is to arrest the secularisation process, which is marginally helped due to 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 hate philosophy, BJP provides the political cover, VHP specialises in the vehement anti minority propaganda and Bajarang Dal takes up physical intimidation of minorities, in this case Christians.
With most of the anti Christian crime getting exonerated by the state machinery, ruled by BJP led coalition at center, and dominated by the silent and violent supporters of SP at different levels the word has gone round that one can get away after attacking Christians. So now all and sundry lumpens and criminals of different hues and shades have discovered the soft target in Christians.
In the light of above
Specific Recommendations

1. The guilty must be punished and the political pressure must be condemned. This will reverse the message that Sangh Parivar and criminals can get away with their anti- Christian violence

2. To reassure the missionaries working in the remote areas the ‘hate activities’ of Sangh Parivar should be censured.

3. Citizens groups should be associated with the minorities for solidarity and support.

4. Media should be requested to come forward to bring the truth to the focus of the society.

5. Human rights cells should be initiated in all the city centers.

6. Human Rights commission should be given more power and resources to investigate most of the cases of Human Rights violations. State Minority and Human Rights commissions to be constituted on urgent basis.

7.Incidentlly we will like to record our disappointment with the SP and the collectors office for lack of cooperation in giving any information to us. We feel the strong need to have a fresh look at the people’s right to information.

(Acknowledgement- The Committee wishes to thank Bombay Urban League and Industrial Development for their support for carrying out this investigation. We also thank CSSS for the assistance in making the report public)