From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bangalore, Oct 25: Archbishop of Bangalore Most Rev Dr Bernard Moras extended warm greetings to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on the occasion of the Deepavali festival and also profusely thanked the State Government on its decision of totally rejecting the one-sided and biased report of the B K Somashekar judicial inquiry commission report on behalf of the entire Christian community.
The Archbishop, who is also the President of Karnataka Region Catholic Bishops’ Council (KRCBC) and All Karnataka United Christian Forum for Human Rights (AKUCFHR), offered a shawl, a flower bouquet and sweets on the occasion of Deepavali festival and wished the Chief Minister and the people of the State joy, happiness and prosperity.
Archbishop Moras was accompanied by Karnataka’s Home Minister K J George and presented a three-page letter to the Chief Minister on late Friday night at the latter’s official residence.
The Archbishop thanked the Chief Minister and all his Cabinet colleagues on their recent decision of rejecting the final report of the Somashekara inquiry commission on behalf of the Archdiocese and the entire Christian community in Karnataka.
Decision to Implement NHRC Recommendations
He particularly appreciated the gesture of the Siddaramaiah Cabinet in assuring the Christian community that the recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which had visited the affected places in the wake of the series of Church attacks and other places of worship of the Christian community in Mangalore, Udupi, Chikmagalur, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum and Bangalore in 2008, within months of the installation of the first-ever BJP government in the State, to protect and safeguard the interests of the Christians and other minorities.
The decision of the State Cabinet to direct the Home Department to examine and act on the NHRC recommendations for providing suitable compensation to the victims of the ``inhuman and brutal” assaults following the Church attacks and also the Churches and other places of worship that were damaged and vandalized besides taking action to prevent recurrence of such incidents.
``We appreciate the assurance given to the Christian Community that its interest would be protected and to safeguard its religious fundamental rights,” the Archbishop said and recalled that the attacks on Churches and other places of worship were systematically carried out in 2008 and 2009 by some religious fundamentalist groups in connivance with and the open support of the civil administration and the police officials.
These shameful and condemnable incidents drew not only the attention and sympathies of the entire State and Country but also the whole world as the attacks were well planned and executed with a view to creating fear and insecurity among the members of the Christian community, he said.
Collusion of then State Govt machinery
``What really surprised and shocked us was that all these attacks and vandalisms were carefully planned and methodically executed with the support and patronage of the then State Government and unfortunately some of the officers in the Government Departments and a few fanatic leaders of a particular religious community,” the Archbishop said.
Archbishop Moras recalled that the entire Christian community had unitedly condemned the attacks and other acts of hooliganism and vandalism and had demanded the then State Government to look into this matter and mete out justice to the Christian Community.
``Due to our repeated pressure, the then State Government had constituted the Justice Somashekara Inquiry Commission,” the Archbishop said pointed out that the commission, in its interim report held a few fundamentalist religious groups responsible for the church attacks but exonerated all these groups and gave them a clean chit in its final report
Surprisingly the Somashekar commission claimed without any proof or evidence that the attacks against Churches were
``triggered allegedly by conversion by some Christian outfits.” He said, ``the accusation of the commission was totally false and baseless leading to the the entire Christian Community rose in protest and rejected the final report and demanded its rejection in toto.”
As the final report of the Justice Somashekara Inquiry Commission was very unfair, it created displeasure and dissatisfaction to the Christian Community and we expressed our hurt feelings and religious sentiments to the then Government. Being deeply rooted in our trust in God, we prayed for the victims to get spiritual strength and courage to bear patiently the humiliations and pain and also for the perpetrators to come to their senses and change their attitude towards the Christians and other minority communities in the State, he explained.
``We made several representations to the Government, the then Governor, the Human Right Commissions and other Bodies to get justice and to safeguard the Christian minority in the State. But we were grossly disappointed at the apathetic attitude of the then State Government,” he said.
When the biased, partisan and totally one-sided Final Report of the Justice Somashekara Inquiry Commission was presented in January 2011 to the then State Government, the entire Christian Community rejected and condemned it. A number of protest Rallies were held all over Karnataka by the Christians, Members of the Human Rights Commission and the people of goodwill to express their solidarity with the suffering victims and the Christians.
Dharnas, Protests, Fasts, Public Rally
A delegation of Catholic Bishops and the leaders of all Christian denominations had conducted a Prayer Service on February 19, 2011 at St. Mark’s Cathedral and also held a dharna in front of Mahatma Gandhi’s Statue on M.G. Road. Later, on the same day, the delegation presented a Memorandum to R. Ashok, the then Deputy Chief Minister and also the State Home Minister, with a request to reject the final Report of the Commission and refer the church attack cases to the CBI for a fair and impartial inquiry.
The Christians also held a mammoth State-wide Protest Rally under the banner of AKUCFHR on February 22, 2011 at St. Francis Xavier’s Cathedral Grounds and urged the then ruling BJP government to reject it. But, our appeal was not complied with and justice was denied to us.
8-Point Charter of Demands
The Archbishop submitted an eight point charter of demands for
• implementing the recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC);
• providing compensation to victims of attacks whose properties were damaged, jobs and income were lost;
• ensuring security to Christian churches and institutions;
• bring culprits to book through effective action;
• disallowing local religious fundamental groups to take the law into their hands;
• taking effective action against the officials who have colluded with the perpetrators of the violent attacks on churches and also for assaulting the Christians who sought to protest against such incidents;
• training police in human rights and provide them special training to handle communal tension; and
• instilling confidence and to assure protection to the Christians in the State.