THE SHAME OF KANDHAMAL

The untold story of gender violence in Orissa

JOHN DAYAL

On a recent visit to Orissa, I interviewed a 13 year old girl who had been gang raped on Dussehara evening in a forest in Kandhamal, not far from her home in a  small township. She was returning with her companions from a  “mela” or fete organized to celebrate the victory of good, exemplified by the Lord Rama, over evil, represented in lore by the effigy of abductor King Ravana.  Torn and naked, barring coat someone had given to hide her body, she made it to the town, and eventually to her extended family. After a long struggle and encounter with a foul mouthed woman police inspector and a callous official of the Orissa government’s Women’s Commission, the family managed to get a First Information Report lodged with the Police. The case is still not in court.

Another girl, also about 13 or 14 years old, was not so lucky. Coming home from another fete, she was captured by a gang of young men, stripped and gang raped. They then tied her to a tree, and  in a frenzy, killed her.

And now, a fact finding team, organized by the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights and others, which went to Kandhamal early in January, has discovered the rape of a third girl. All of them were either Dalits or Tribal. And two of them were Christian.

Away from the mass movement in New Delhi and other big towns, both spontaneous and organized,  of the gang rape and murder of “Brave-heart Daughter of India” as media and politicians called her, there has been a   stunning silence on rapes of Dalit and Tribal women across the country, often enough by members of the police an security forces, and the absolute impunity that goes with it. Orissa has specially been an area of darkness. Some accounts have put the number of rapes in Kandhamal region as high as 30, with civil rights groups speaking of upto 100 cases in Sundargarh, for instance.

This is time to have a look at the full picture in Orissa which has a long history of rapes and its political consequences. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's 13-year long regime has witnessed a series of such gory incidents.  Civil rights groups quote official data which says that three women are raped every day in the state.

Local activists say this winter has seen many spine chilling rape incidents. A dancing girl was raped by three persons in the state capital while another girl was molested and pushed out of a running auto-rickshaw in the city. This was followed by a most pathetic incident where a minor girl was forcibly lifted and gang-raped in Rayagada. The orphan girl who was staying with her grand-mother attempted self-immolation.

Crimes against women under three heads - namely rape, molestation and “eve teasing” - during the years 2009, 2010 and 2011 have increased in the state. "There has been a 20% rise in rape cases in the state during 2012. The increase in molestation and eve teasing cases have also recorded roughly the same percentage," a senior official in the state Home department has admitted.  The tribal dominated Keonjhar district tops the list of crimes against women. While 75 rape cases were registered in this mineral rich district in 2011, the figure increased to 101 in 2012. Besides, 235 molestation and 20 eve-teaching cases were also reported in Keonjhar the same year. Mayurbhanj registered the highest number of 295 molestation cases in 2012, figuring slightly below the neighbouring district in rape cases (82).

Christians have been particular targets. In the 2007-2008 attacks, women and girls were targeted for sexual violence, humiliation, brutal physical assaults and threats. “There are several other reports of sexual assault and molestation and it is highly likely that many other such cases have gone unreported due to the shame attached,” warned the study ‘Genocide in Kandhamal: Ethnic Cleansing of Christians by Hindu Rightwing Forces in Orissa’ by the Human Rights Law Network. According to the report of Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work, five women reported that they and / or their female family members had been subjected to sexual assaults, and that 16 women said that young girls in their area had been raped while 12 women reported that women had been raped in their villages.  Though witness testimonies indicate that sexual violence was rampant during the attacks, there are very few reported cases, and an even smaller number that have been registered and are pending in the courts for prosecution. 

Patently, civil society – which includes the Church in the State and in India, must wake up to this grim reality before we seek to rouse the Judiciary and the political system.

We must not be partners in the conspiracy of silence.

NGO work in Orissa may be impacted as India cracks down on foreign funding

India chokes NGOs dependent on Western charity

JOHN DAYAL

After trying to bludgeon the Catholic church in Tamil Nadu into submission and withdrawing its support to the protest against the Russian-aided nuclear power plant in Koodmakulam, the Indian government now seems bent upon choking civil society voices seen as challenging it on issues such as torture, religious freedom, and the life and death powers the military exercises over citizens in the country’s north eastern states.

The weapon of choice is the threat to cancel licenses under the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act that allows non-government organization, especially religious groups of all faiths, and Human Rights advocacy activists, to carry on their work with foreign financial help in an impoverished country where corporate and individual philanthropy is virtually unknown. 

While a large number of Hindu God men and women are also major recipients of donations from international charities, including church agencies in Europe and the United States, Indian Catholic and Protestant groups, with slim local resources, are to a large extent dependent on foreign funds to carry on their charitable and development work among India’s poor and marginalized communities. The Christian institutions working in education and health sectors among the Tribals and the Dalits, once branded, as untouchables in the iron Caste system, are particularly vulnerable. As it is, the meltdown in the west has severely impacted on their work.

After arbitrarily cancelling as many as 4,300 FCRA permits – on specious arguments that their addresses could not be verified -- the Union government is now issuing orders virtually banning some European and US funding agencies from the country. Indian groups have been told they need to take prior permission from the Ministry of Home Affairs, which also controls the intelligence agencies and some central police forces, before they can submit their projects to funding agencies named in the government’s prohibitory list.

Prime among them is Cordaid, a Dutch Catholic charity that is accused of having given funds to some Indian NGOs who are working for the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act that is responsible for many human rights abuses in Kashmir valley and the North Eastern States. The Reserve Bank of India has circulated an order to all banks in India that they have to inform it if they notice any transfer of funds from Cordaid to local NGOs. Cordaid is also held responsible for partly funding the India Against Corruption trust headed by social activist Anna Hazare and his erstwhile colleague Arvind Kejriwal whose newly formed political party is challenging the ruling Congress and main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.

Authoritative sources in the government say several other European charities, specially from the Scandinavian countries, are also on the government’s radar, as are many Indian NGOs with whom they have had relationship in the past.

The NGOs affected by the government withdrawing their FCRA permits have protested, but only a few of them have had the precious license restored. In a few other cases including some high profile advocacy groups, permission has been given for them to operate their bank accounts for payment of essential services, but they cannot withdraw any money in cash.

This has, understandably, created a panic among organisations working in development and training at the grassroots. Among those who risk going bankrupt for want of funds are several groups working among victims of violence against the Christian community in Kandhamal district of Orissa state.

Mr. Sanjay Patra, a highly respected transparency expert heading the Financial Management Services Foundation, there is no reason for the government’s paranoia, as there are several other laws on the books to check any misuse of funds, or diversion of money to terrorism on insurrectionist activities. Mr. Patra is also a leading light of the Voluntary Associations Network of India [VANI], which provides an interface with the government. VANI is now engaging with the government to get the FCRA licenses restored for the NGOs that have fallen foul of the authorities.  VANI is also urging the government to change provisions in the FCRA rules that make it mandatory for all NGOs to seek a renewal of their permissions every five years instead of the earlier permanent ones. Anyway, money received from foreign charities under FCRA rules can be used only in designated activities and cannot be diverted to other areas.

Of the more than two million NGOs registered in the country those registered under FCRA are 38436. Of them, 21508 Associations reported a total receipt of an amount of Rs. 10,337.59 crore [about US Dollars 195 million] as foreign contribution. Many have FCRA permits but actually do not get any funds from abroad.

The government says the NGO sector in India is vulnerable to the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing, and therefore requires some form of policing of their funds and activities. But it has not been able to adduce any real evidence indicting the NGOs or linking them with terrorist or other unlawful groups other than in political rhetoric. According to government data, list of donor countries is headed by the USA (Rs. 3105.73 crore) followed by Germany (Rs. 1046.30 crore) and UK (Rs. 1038.68 crore).

The FCRA law is a reflection of India’s paranoia on what is euphemistically called the “foreign hand”, or fears that the West is intervening in Indian politics and culture. India’s right wing has accused the West of financing conversions to Christianity and supporting “Christian” insurrectionist groups in states such as Mizoram, Manipur and Meghalaya in the North East. No evidence has ever been adduced for this, other than political gossip and innuendo.

The law was drafted by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government in 1975 when she declared a State of Internal Emergency, all but suspended the Constitution and imposed censorship on the Media, arresting thousands of political dissidents and leaders of political parties. The government then said that Socialist leader Mr. Jaiprakash Narain, leading a movement against corruption and for democratic reforms, and several Gandhian groups supporting him were funded by western agencies and were trying to induce the Indian army to mutiny. Subsequent governments overturned many of Mrs. Gandhi’s laws, but retained the FCRA as a useful instrument to tame civil society.

SEPTEMBER 2012 UPDATE ON KANDHAMAL

At last, a token of hope amid injustice

But Christians still face an uphill struggle

By John Dayal

New Delhi: 

In the continuing gloom of injustice, broken promises and misadministration in Kandhamal, the birth of the new parish of Pakari has come as a token of hope and light for a Christian community still living with the memory of brutal attacks in December 2007 and August 2008 and with the ensuing “structural violence”.

The two young priests in charge of the parish, Fr. Bimal Nayak and Fr. Cassian Pradhan, a Panos Dalit and a Kondh tribal, are hopeful that it will invigorate the almost 5,000-member local church. They hope that in a few years, they will see the birth of another parish in the remote region of Orissa.

The church building is still just a design on a piece of paper, broadly resembling the church in Brahminigaon, which is getting the finishing touches on reconstruction after its destruction on Christmas Eve, 2007. The new parish will have a hostel and perhaps even a school, as well as the presbytery for the parish priest and his assistant, and a few rooms for visiting bishops and clergy.

One school may not be enough to challenge the success of the Sangh Parivar in spreading its hate ideology to the young.

Surveys by several groups, including mine, the All India Christian Council, reveal a massive effort by the Hindu nationalists to penetrate every village in the region. By this summer, the Sangh had set up an estimated 500 “Shishu mandirs,” or formal schools, and as many as 500 additional “Ekal vidyalayas,” or one-teacher schools, in remote villages.

Neither the government nor the church comes anywhere close to these numbers.

Observers have also noted changes in the tactics of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, the main cadre of the Hindutva Parivar in the villages. The presence of Maoists in Darringbadi and other blocks has made the Sangh focus on areas where the Maoists are absent, or present only in small numbers. No major attacks have been reported this summer against Christians.

But the absence of violence brings little joy for much of the Christian community. In interviews and affidavits, residents speak of extreme economic hardship, particularly in remote areas, because of a lack of employment and ongoing economic boycotts of Christians.

In the villages of Tikabali, Adasapanda and Mujhlimandi, Christians are not being employed as labor in the fields or in the local markets.

Worse, many Christian men and women have been kept out of the government-run Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which is supposed to provide 100 days a year of paid employment on official projects such as roads, bridges and water conservation works.

Government agencies are still harassing tribal Christians, forcing them to get a recommendation from the political outfit Kui Samaj when they come to get their “caste certificates” which are needed for scholarships, jobs and other “benefits” from the state and union governments. This is of course illegal, but the practice goes on despite Christian activists and lawyers notifying the District Collector.

There is also no government initiative as yet to give land to the landless tribals.

The cumulative impact of these situations is the migration of tribals and Dalits first to Phulbani, the district capital, and Baliguda, the only two major towns in the district, and then out of Kandhamal and even out of Orissa.

Recent surveys have confirmed that as many as 10,000 of the 56,000 people impacted by the violence have not returned to their homes in the villages.

With the justice process in the two fast-track courts showing no progress, Christian groups have once again petitioned the Supreme Court for re-investigation of the murders committed during the August 2008 violence. There have been just two convictions in more than 30 cases accepted by the government, after a death toll of more than 90. The Supreme Court is expected to take up the writ soon.

In another major initiative, the National Human Rights Commission is being approached by victims and their representatives who are seeking a comprehensive justice and rehabilitation package such as the ones victims of the anti-Sikh violence of 1984 and anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 won after interventions by the Supreme Court and the National Human Rights Commission.

The comprehensive application points out that thousands of children continue to be without education, and men and women without jobs. Both individuals and the church have been denied adequate compensation for the destruction of property during the riots, because of deficiencies in government surveys and irrational systems of calculating the loss.

Christian activists have taken great heart from the recent Supreme Court judgment holding two BJP politicians guilty of murders in Gujarat’s Naroda Patiya area, and NHRC decisions in similar cases.

This has been reflected in the mass rallies that have been held in Phulbani and Bhubaneswar on August 25. Police gave permission at the last moment for Christians to mark the fourth anniversary of the violence. Berhampur Bishop Sarath spoke to about 4,000 people about the need for justice and rehabilitation.

The RSS held its own rally on August 23 to commemorate the murder, by Maoists, of Vishwa Hindu Parishad vice president Lakshmanananda Saraswati. Several hundred RSS activists shouted slogans asking for the arrest of the “real” murderers of Saraswati. Seven Kandhamal Christians have been rotting in jail for four years as suspects, their bail applications routinely denied by the courts.

[First published in Ucan News, 12 September 2012, New Delhi]

KANDHAMAL UPDATE 1 MAY 20 2011

JUSTICE STILL ELUDES THE CHRISTIAN VICTIMS, AND MANY ARE TO BLAME FOR IT

JOHN DAYAL

There has been just one conviction for murder in 20 cases of the brutal killing of Christians of Kandhamal, Orissa, at the hands of Hindutva fanatics, and mobs led by them, during August--October 2008. More than two years and 9 months later the course of justice in the two special Fast Track Courts continues to be a travesty – with aberrations at all stages, from the presentation of the production case and examination of witnesses, to the coercive presence of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh goons in the court premises, often in the court room, and the role of both judges and defence lawyers.
Lawyers for the victims have no role in court other than occasionally feebly protesting to the judges – in vain – those relatives and other eye witnesses who deposed they saw the men and women being killed are being threatened blatantly. The response of the judges has been, “we have sent the orders to the police.” The police have no response at all. The single biggest beneficiary of the miscarriage of justice has been Mr. Manoj Pradhan, the local Member of the State Legislature and a leader of the Bharatiya Janata party which was then a coalition partner in the government of Chief Minister Mr. Naveen Pattnaik. Mr. Pradhan is accused in over half a dozen cases, and is currently free on bail.
Investigation no doubt has been tardy and superficial – one junior gazetted officer and two inspectors head the small team trying to probe the vast number of cases with primitive forensic equipment and almost no training in probing cases of mass violence. No attempt was made to use video and mobile phone camera images that are widely available both with the victims and with the accused. In some cases, the two Fast Track Court judges have indeed passed strictures against the police investigation, and in most cases, they have found the testimony of witnesses --- victims and their relatives – either not trustworthy or insufficient to prove the offence against the accused, a review of the judgments shows.
There has been no attempt by the Directorate of Prosecutions or by the police to upgrade cases where victims died of their injuries not on the spot, but in hospital, refugee camps or other places. Under Indian legal practice, cases of attempted murder or murderous assault would automatically be upgraded to murder if the victim died of his injuries. This has prevented a large number of cases from being recorded as murder.
It may be recalled that the violence which began 24th August 2008 took a heavy toll. Over 14 of the 30 districts in the state were impacted. 6,000 houses were burnt in 400 villages, including 296 churches and smaller places of Christian worship. Over 56,000 became internally displaced persons, about 30,000 living from three months to a year in government refugee camps. Over 20,000 men, women and children spent days hiding in forests. Over 10,000 are yet to return home. About 1,000 have been warned or threatened by their neighbours they can return home if they become Hindus. Some are living in what can be called “Christian ghettos”, one of which is on land provide by the district authorities who find themselves impotent in rehabilitating the Christians in their villages. The rest have left Kandhamal in fear, or in search of jobs, as they do not have any livelihood now in Kandhamal where they also face an economic blockade.]
Cutting through the fog created around the legal data, the following is the current situation of the criminal investigation of cases of arson and murder, abduction and violence. Complaints were made at the local police posts, at the regional police stations, and often directly to the offices of the Superintendent of Police in the district capital of Phulbani by registered post. In some cases, complaints were sent to the Director General of Police in Bhubaneswar when the Police stations returned complaints sent by registered post.
3,232 criminal complaints were filed when the dust settled on the Second Phase violence that began on 24th August 2008 and after peaking by about 30 August, continued sporadically through most of September and October that year.
1541 complaints are acknowledged by the Kandhamal district police, but they did not file them as the First Information Reports required under Indian Criminal law.
828 complaints were actually converted to First Information Reports [FIRs} which mark the beginning of further investigation and the case being brought before a court for trial after a charge-sheet is filed.
327 Cases have actually seen a completion of the investigation process with the cases committed to the two Fast Track Courts headed by two ad hoc Additional District Judges for day to day hearings.
169 Cases have seen the acquittal of all accused,
86 cases have ended up in convictions -- not for the heinous crimes mentioned in the FIRs as the main ones, but for comparatively minor offenses meriting only prison terms of two or three years.
90 cases still are in the process of being tried.
1597 suspects have been acquitted. This does not include the thousands who could not be arrested in the cases, and therefore could not be brought to trial.
[The Orissa State government acknowledges and admits to 52 deaths in Kandhamal in the violence of 2007 and 2008. Of them 38 are of Christians, four deaths of Hindus include those of Vishwa Hindu Parishad Vice president Lakshmananda Saraswati and three inmates of his Ashram attacked by Maoists on 23 August 2008, 4 were killed in police firing in Kotagarh of Tumlibanda Police station and G Udayagiri police station, three were policemen killed by mobs, and 3 are said to be other deaths in other Maoist attacks. Data collected by church activists lists 91 murder cases. Of them, murders with death on the spot number 38, another 41 died of injuries sustained in the violence, but at places other than the place of violence and at various times after the attacks, and 12 died in police action. These figures do not include suicides and deaths that could be medically labelled as due to post trauma syndrome among the young and aged who saw the violence at close quarters and then spent much time in refugee camps or slums.]
[Larger issues of criminal law and justice have been recorded – till mid 2010 – by Supreme Court of India Advocate Vrinda Grover in her research book “The Law must change its course’, published by MARG, a Delhi-based NGO. Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik has admitted in a written answer in the State Legislative Assembly that of the arrested persons, over 600 were members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, and the Bajrang Dal, the militant wings of the Bharatiya Janata party, a national political party which was his coalition partner at the time of the anti Christian pogrom.]
[Jurists who have seen the records have said “There have been grave lapses on the part of each of the three, viz., the Investigating Officer, the Public Prosecutor (PP) and the Trial Judge. The Investigating Officer has failed to get the Statements of the Eye Witnesses, especially the injured witnesses recorded u/s 164 Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The PP has failed to properly cross-examine the Eye witnesses who were turning hostile in the court. The PP also failed to get exhibited the confronted portions of the statements of the Hostile Eye Witnesses recorded prior in time u/s 161 CrPC. The Trial Judge has failed in his duty u/s 280 CrPC inasmuch as the Trial Judge has failed to record remarks regarding the demeanour of each of those eye Witnesses who were resiling from their previous statement recorded u/s 161 CrPC and who were become hostile to the prosecution. The Trial Judge has also failed to play his role to discover the truth and the Trial Judge has failed to put any court question to the hostile eye witnesses in order to discover the truth. Finally, the Trial Judge has wholly misapplied his mind and has failed to appreciate the evidence in terms of the guidelines laid down by this Hon’ble Court in several judgements. The Trial Judge has sufficient material available before him to hold that the persons facing trial were part of an unlawful assembly, the object of which was to cause inter alia homicidal death of the victims. There was also sufficient material to show participation of the accused persons in such an unlawful assembly. There was also sufficient material available to the Trial Judge to discover that the accused persons had acted in furtherance of the common object. The Trial Judge had sufficient available material before him to examine that the accused persons had been properly identified in the court and that specific roles had been ascribed to the accused persons and the Post mortem Report was corroborating the role ascribed to such accused persons in their assault with the weapons described by the witnesses.”]

In Kandhamal, Maoist violence adds a new dimension to recovery

Kandhamal Update One in the Season of Advent 9dec10

Maoist violence delays church restoration, and the Catholic Parish of Batticola village that has vanished in thin air

John Dayal, Kandhamal, {Orissa} 8 December 2010

Sikarma Catholic parish is a blessed one – it escaped anti Christian violence both in Christmas 2007 and the 23 August to November carnage of 2008. But today it is a Parish in mourning. Five of a local Catholic Dalit and Tribal families were wiped out when an ambulance they were travelling in was blown up in a bend in the forest road on its way back from a Hospital in Behrampur some 200 kilometers at midnight on 27th November 2010. Ironically, the pregnant woman the family had taken to the hospital gave birth to a stillborn child because they had delayed too long. The tragedy was further aggravated, for among the dead was a pregnant social worker, and a three year old girl who would not stay back at home with her father. The social worker and the ambulance driver were the only one not related to the others. She had volunteered to accompany the woman in distress.

Maoists had a few days earlier shot dead a businessman and Hindutva political activist Manoj Sahoo, 35, at point blank range in the marketplace. Sahoo was a contractor and had been listed in a public handbill reportedly published by Maoists after the assassination of VHP vice president Lakshmananda Saraswati on 23rd August 2008, which triggered off a three month orgy of anti Christian violence by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh groups Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Adivasi Kalyan Parishad. Manoj was an enthusiastic local leader of that violence, according to the villagers.

In another incident three moths ago, two Christian home guards were killed by the Maoists who accused them of being police informers before slashing them with sharp weapons and then executing them with gunfire.

In the terror that now pervades the area in Brahmanigaon and Sikarma, people are afraid to come to work. According to the Parish priest of Brahmanigaon, his work of reconstructing the church burnt down on Christmas Eve in 2007 has been stalled because the contractor has chickened out.

In a black turn to the tragic story of nearby Sikarma, the Maoists reportedly apologized to the surviving members of the small well knit-clan, and have offered compensation. The surviving family members told me they would refuse the money if indeed it was given.

The Maoists had set the trap – a powerful wired anti-vehicle mine set off by a long distance switch – for a local senior police officer, who was to pass by the same route in a white vehicle, very similar to the ill-fated hospital ambulance. The policeman apparently changed his plans at the last moment. According to villagers who wish to remain anonymous, the ambulance driver too had been “warned” by unidentified persons not to travel along that route so late at night, but the family was in a hurry to reach home to collect money for the Behrampur hospital where their patient required fresh infusions of expensive blood.

The ambulance driver avoided possible Maoist “checkpoints” in the nearby Brahmanigaon area by taking a detour through the local police station and hospital before coming back to the only road to the village, and its rendezvous with tragedy. It would seem that the Maoists mistook the ambulance be the vehicle of the policeman and set off the blast. Later, they dragged the bodies of the driver and another man close to the culvert, seemingly to identify them. The women’s bodies were still far away from the shattered vehicle.

It was some days after the blast that I came to the village after passing by the twisted remains of the jeep-ambulance by the culvert. I met the family which was still in a trauma to be very coherent. The story was narrated by Sister Teresa who runs a dispensary in her convent, and Fr Dushmant, the assistant parish priest, who had helped pick up the pieces of the bodies as they lay, splattered over 500 meters in the jungle. Dushmant has himself seen violence at close quarters. He was earlier in the Kanjimendi-Nuagaon Pastoral House when it was burnt by marauding mobs in August 2008.

Fr Dushmant says they are still to find the legs of one woman, and the head of another.

Sister Teresa said she had earlier attended on the pregnant woman, Bonita, the wife of casual labour Buna Digal. She had diagnosed that the woman was carrying a fetus too large for a normal delivery. She told them to take the woman to the government hospital in Phulbani or to Behrampur. Buna waited too long. By the time his driver friend Simon Pradhan brought the hospital ambulance, rushed Bonita and her relatives to the hospital, it was too late for the unborn child. He was dead in the womb. But Bonita still needed blood, and for that, the family needed money. The ambulance was returning with the family to borrow the money.

In their twin huts in the Musina hamlet of Sikarma village close to the road, Bento Digal sits with his grand aunt Sushila Digal, who now looks older than her 60 years. Bento lost his pregnant wife Innoci and daughter Subhashi. His three year old son Pabano had remained in the village, and survived. Sushila lost her son Buna, whose wife survives in the Behrampur hospital after her still born delivery. The two unrelated good Samaritans who died were Simon Pradhan, a friendly tribal who had brought the ambulance from the hospital in Brahmanigaon where he served, and Shushanti Mallik, 30, a tribal and social worker of an NGO. The survivors do not know what the future holds for them. Senior district officers are still to visit the twin families.

… …

Batticola – The Parish that vanished


Tragic in a different manner is the story of the Catholic parish that has vanished into the unknown. Batticola parish covered the Nandigiri village which had more than six dozen worshipping families. These were devout families, and had given at least three Nuns and two Priests to the Church in recent years despite their life of abject poverty as petty famers and casual labour. One of the priests is Fr Mrityunjay, the secretary to Archbishop Raphael Cheenath and also the treasurer of the diocese. His mother and two brothers are witness to some of the worst aspects of the anti Christian violence of 2008. One of his brothers was forcibly tonsured, made to drink cow dung and urine in a religious conversion masterminded and enforced by the local Hindutva thugs.

Every single Christian house in Nandigiri was torched and destroyed in the violence. The people ran away into the forest, and then found refuge in government camps. Bu they are among the unfortunate who may never be able to go to the village of their ancestors because they have been told they would have to convert to Hinduism as a precondition to their return. The kingpin behind the violence is one Goverdhan Pradhan, who roamed free for two years before he was finally arrested in nearby Udayagiri town by police inspector Murmu.

Collector Krishan Kumar has apparently conceded that he cannot ensure the safety of the Christians back in Nandigiri nor can he persuade the local Hindus to accept their brethren back. His solution has been to found a new village ghetto several kilometers away at the foot of a mountain, just for the Christians. In a supreme irony, this village is called Shantinagar, the place of peace.

The collector has allotted 4 cents of land – four per cent of an acre – to each family to build a house. The 69 families who have shifted – 51 of them Catholic – cleared the shrub, dug the rain water trenches, and waited in tents before the houses – sterile and identical brick and steel sheet roof structures – were put up by the Believers Church in money they donated together with the little money that the collector gave. The houses cost Rs 80,000, and many of the residents now owe money to the church. Efforts are on to persuade the church to waive off the balance. The Jesuits and Mother Teresa’s sisters have provided the cots and blankets, the cooking pots and the clothes.

But there is no livelihood. The collector has allotted them the land on condition that they would let go of their claims on the old village land. But he has not allotted them any agricultural land in exchange of their fields in the village where they are now not allowed to till. This is a village where the men have no jobs of any kind. The younger lot goes to the nearby town of Udayagiri to try their luck as casual labour. They have lost much more than their livelihood. They have all but lost their dignity. And the church has lost its parish. The official parish priest now lives in far away Bhubaneswar. A priest closer by comes for Sunday prayers. Even as I was talking to them, the villagers were being persuaded by St Gabriel congregation Brother Markose, who was uniting them to build a new church-cum-community hall, so they could celebrate Christmas in a new church, and not under the very cold Kandhamal skies.

Their Christmas wish remains a return to the lost parish of Batticola in Nandigiri and to revive their old Church.

Admiral of the Faith

Raphael Cheenath of Kandhamal

By John Dayal
August 2010

In a year which marks the Centenary of Blessed Mother Teresa and of Saint Alphonsa, most would find it difficult to find another authentic Christian hero for the Faithful in India. Raphael Cheenath would possibly blush if someone were to describe him as a living Saint -- if a tall deeply tanned and well built man in his late Seventies, who has seen both the urbane world and the deep of the forests, can indeed blush. But the Archbishop of Cuttack Bhubaneswar, and as he is now better known across the globe, “Archbishop Cheenath of Kandhamal”, is indeed one of a kind, a hero of the faith for Catholics, Episcopal and Evangelical Christians. This for having provided leadership to a battered and fragile community consisting of indigenous Tribal Kondh people and Dalit Panos groups, the poorest and the most marginalised segments of the population, to stand up to the worst form of persecution Christians have faced in over three hundred years. The last such large scale violence against the faithful was at the hands of Tipu Sultan, King of Mysore, who ravished the West coast of the Konkan and drove the Catholics on a long march to captivity.

What Cheenath and his people faced was the full hatred of India’s emergent neo-fascist religious bigots, described by political scientists as the Sangh Parivar. This is a pseudo-military political conglomeration believing in the right of their upper caste co-religionists to be the true and only inheritors of India, with Muslims and Christians in particular as aliens who have no place in the motherland. This group, which took inspiration from the Nazi and fascist traditions of Adolf Hitler and Il Duce Mussolini from the Europe of the 1920s and 1930s, has been unhappy at India’s partition with the Muslim dominated western regions becoming the Islamic republic of Pakistan. They transferred their political angst into an animosity against Indian Muslims. This animosity has triggered perhaps twenty thousand riots in fifty years against the Muslims, who form just over ten per cent of the population. The Sangh hatred of Christians – who are less than 2.4 per cent of the national population -- was perhaps even deeper, partly by identifying the community with the imperial British who ruled India for more than a Hundred years, and partly for seeing in proselytising Christian missionaries a threat to the core of Hinduism itself. This led to a series of violent acts, sporadic in the first forty years of Independence of India in 1947, but bursting into the open in the mid 1990s, mostly in Gujarat, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.

The Sangh violence of the 1990s against Christians saw the emergence of Archbishop Alan De Lastic of Delhi as the undisputed leader and spokesman of the Christian community in the country. Alan took to advocacy at the highest level, representing the community’s cause with the highest political leadership in the land, and when that failed to rouse the national conscience, led the community into radical action, including all India agitation such as the strike of 4 December 1998 which saw every educational and medical institution run by the community close down for a day in protest.

The government’s response, then, and of the Bharatiya Janata party now, was to call for a national debate on conversions, a ruse repeatedly used by the Sangh Parivar to coerce the community and subvert Constitutional guarantees of freedom of faith.

The Sangh violence in Kandhamal was at a much higher pitch, lasted much longer and affected more people than the mayhem had in 1998 or even earlier. When the fires died down in the plateau of Kandhamal right in the middle of the State of Orissa, more than 54,000 people had become refugees in their own homeland, Over 400 villages had been purged of all Christian presence, a hundred people had been killed and over 5,600 houses burnt. Children lost their childhood, those going to school lost years of academic progress. A Nun was gang raped, and there were reports of many other rapes and molestation. Girls were molested, and into the third year, some had been victims of human trafficking. For many, the trauma was worse – they had been told they could not return to their villages till they became Hindus, a process accomplished by forcibly shearing off their hair and making them drink a mixture of the dung and urine of a cow. Most refused and were severely beaten up and brutalised. They remain the real heroes.

In a way, Cheenath had a lifetime of experience in the tribal regions of central India to know how to respond even to the unexpected. Raphael Cheenath, born in Manalur, Kerala on 29 December 1934 joined the Society of the Divine Word, worked in Madhya Pradesh and Orissa as a missionary and priest, and was eventually appointed Bishop of Sambalpur, before being named 1 July 1985 as the second Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar Archdiocese. As missionary, priest, Bishop and Archbishop, he had worked closely with the Dalit and Tribal communities. It is an interesting factoid that his Bishop’s house is almost entirely staffed by people from Kandhamal.

When violence broke out, first in December 2007 at Christmas-time and then in August 2008, it was natural and swift for a duty-bound Cheenath to convey the cries and the anguish of the victims to the national political and governmental leadership. With other colleagues of the Episcopacy in the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, he met the President of India and the Prime minister, the Governor and the Chief Minister. When the Chief Minister refused to meet the Christian delegation which had called on him, Cheenath led the clergy group to stage a Gandhian “dharna” or sit-in at the residence of the Chief Minister till the man, Mr Naveen Pattnaik, agreed to meet them.

The fires however continued to rage in the forests. It was the forest, like a mother, which sheltered the refugees, preventing a much higher death toll. But they were without relief. The district officers refused permission for Church agencies to bring in relief. The Sangh had feared that church relief agencies would further convert people or spread Christianity! The media was not helpful.

Cheenath had the courage to go to court. He has consistently shown this commitment to justice, to the need to challenge the legal system of the country to deliver justice to religious minorities. This is not as easy as it sounds. Justice still eludes most in Kandhamal, and it is the legal review system that has been put ion place by the church that is ensuring that the Fat Track courts trying several of the criminal cases are closely monitored and preparations made for remedial action.

Cheenath’s writ petition in the Supreme Court of India was the first of the many steps that would have to be taken in courts big and small, and it produced results. If over 2,000 of the houses have now been completed and relief agencies are working, it is because of that court action.

Cheenath would sound out the justice system more than once. He became the first Archbishop, or Christian leader, in living memory to appear before a Judicial Commission, the Justice Panigrahi Commission, to put on record the plight of the common an the poor of his community. He refused to be cowed by the cross examination of hostile lawyers, most of whom were politically aligned with the Sangh Parivar.

It has been this charismatic leadership in all sectors – the justice system, the relief and rehabilitation, and the matter of faith – that Cheenath has been successful in strengthening the spiritual values of the people and of his clergy and restoring faith in the system, which had been shattered. In fact, government and judiciary owe him a debt of gratitude for this, for it would have been so easy for the frustrated and the angry to lose faith in democratic processes and institutions when faced with the magnitude of the crisis and the initial hostility of police and administration.

It is not that the Archbishop has not faced charges from the lesser informed among clergy and lay persons, mostly for not being physically present in Kandhamal in the initial weeks, and coming first to Delhi and then staying back in the Bishops House in Bhubaneswar. But to say this is to not fully understand the geography of the area and the political and violence situation. There was hardly a Catholic institutional building intact in the entire region. It may, by the way, be recalled that a bomb was thrown at Bishop’s house during Christmas 2007; the complaint of this was made to the police by no less than Father Bernard Digal, then Treasurer of the Archdiocese. One of the great tragedies of Kandhamal was the martyrdom of Fr Bernard, who left the comparative security of Bishops’ house to travel close to 300 kilometres to see the ground situation in the district, which also happened to be his homeland. His own village had been devastated. His brother and family had seen their hut being burnt to the ground, and were now staying with thousands of others in a refugee camp. Bernard was waylaid, and beaten savagely, and then left for dead. He was rescued by others a day alter, brought to hospital. He almost recovered after intensive treatment in Mumbai, but eventually succumbed to his internal injuries and complications in a hospital in Chennai just when everyone was expecting him to be declared cured.

That showed the threat to all clergy and religious, especially women who were absolutely not safe. The Archbishop had been identified by the Sangh Parivar and named as their main enemy. The Sangh staged dharna and agitations in Bhubaneswar asking for his immediate arrest, tighter with Rajya Sabha member Radha Kant Nayak and a couple of others. The threat to the Archbishop’s life and liberty was very real. The Sangh was trying hard to implicate him and some other Catholic leaders in the murder of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad vice president Lakshmanananda Saraswati whose murder, acknowledged to be their handiwork by left-wing militant Maoist groups of the region, that had triggered off the violence. The body of this man had been taken in a procession of over 200 kilometres through the hills and valleys of Kandhamal, accompanied not just by Sangh leaders, but even by the highest district civil and police authorities who ten stood by while well armed mobs used direr and knife to lay into the Christian community village after village. The district authorities were just not ready to take the risk for a survey of the violence by the Archbishop, afraid both for his security and possibly that his presence could make the Christian community rise in revolt in the refugee camps where living conditions were barely fit for animals. And when finally Cheenath did come to the district, it had to be while being escorted by an armed convoy.

There had also been charges, muttered silently and gossiped through SMS messages and emails that while Pentecost pastors stayed with the community even in refugee camps, the Catholic priests had gone to the forests. Cheenath had even in the Christmas 2007 violence given clear instructions to the men and women under his charge – human lives were precious and sacred, but buildings could be rebuilt. Catholic fathers including parish priests saw their churches burn as they fled to the forests, but many of the parishes were coming alive within months of the return of peace, the lone priest living in the ashes of the parish church, so to speak, of perhaps a single surviving room in what was once his home. Catholic institutions were the main target of the violence of 2008, but it is the resilience of the church and the strength of its leadership – including the courage of individual priests – that the Church is alive once again in the forests of Kandhamal.

Cheenath has toured Europe and other countries, but more important, it has been his witness in many states in the country that has encouraged and strengthened the community and given it hope. His evidence before visiting human rights groups, and as important, before emissaries of various countries and the international human rights movement, including the Untied Nations Human Rights Council through its Special Rapporteur, that Cheenath ahs been successful in explaining to the world at large the danger that neo Nazi and fascist groups, riding a narrow religious nationalism, pose not just to India, but to international peace. We cannot say this of many other religious leaders in the country today. As someone who has seen him at close quarters over the last three years, I have come to respect and admire Archbishop Raphael Cheenath. His life remains under threat. But Cheenath has been a veritable Admiral, leading his men, of course, but also steering the community to security, and peace while maintaining pressure on the State to give Justice to the victims.

To the Nuns and Priests of Orissa

The priests of Kandhamal

By John Dayal

Kandhamal is deadly beautiful. A tropical forest, but with close mountains and deep valleys, and a climate that can get alpine in winter, without the snow. The topography of this plateau in the middle of the Indian province of Orissa may have saved the lives of tens of thousands of Christians who fled to the forests as mobs with murder, arson and rape on their minds, attacked 300 villages on 25 August 2008. At the peak of the violence, 54,000 men, women and children were hiding in these forests of tall Sal trees, where bear and big cats still abound, and wild elephants can be heard in the dark of the night. Among those 54,000 were the families of perhaps three dozen Catholic priests and twice as many Nuns, and two dozen priests themselves, hiding and waiting for the moment the police would come to restore order. For some of them, it came too late. A hundred people may have died there, among them three protestant Pastors and a Catholic priest, Fr Bernard Digal, who was grievously wounded and succumbed some time later. A nun, Sister M, as I will call her, was among at least three women raped.

The brutal tragedy however also shed light on how close are the bond that the local priests have with their flocks. Unlike in many other parts of India where he parish priest may have come from as far as three thousand kilometres, be of a different ethnicity and with a different mother tongue, priests and nuns in Kandhamal are of the soil. The villages that were torched were where they were born, the churches destroyed were the priest too had been baptised, and where they celebrated their First Mass.

There is therefore something remarkable about the Priests and Nuns of Kandhamal, be they Dalits or the Tribals. Some of them, such as Fathers Vijay Naik and Vijay Pradhan, the first a Dalit and the second a Tribal, have doctorates from Roman universities. Many others chose to study social work, and were active at the grassroots. They helped galvanise a people who for centuries had suffered from a situation close to serfdom in which food was rare and education unknown, where women were vulnerable and children could bare hope to grow to adulthood. No wonder the work of the priest sand nuns had angered vested interests, the local equivalent of big business, and the power brokers. When the violence broke out, the families of the priests were particular targets. The brother of Fr Mrityunjay, the secretary of the Archbishop of the region, was forcibly converted into Hinduism by a murderous gang shaving off his head and forcing cow dung and urine down his throat. The youth suffered in silence, but was back in the church in the refugee tent as soon as it was humanly possible.

As elsewhere in the world, the clergy and women religious in India too face occasional charges of financial wrongdoings, but those in Kandhamal can easily be said to be crystal clean. The family of father Bernard Digal, who was Treasurer of the Archdiocese and became its first martyr in the violence, lived in a mud and thatchl hut when I visited them some years ago. After the violence, they were among thousands living in a government refigure camp. They still have to return to their village.

I salute the priests and Nuns of Kandhamal.

European Union cancels Orissa trip

A European Union delegation’s visit to Orissa has been scrapped at the
last minute after a dispute with the federal government over where the
team could go.

The delegation wanted to visit Orissa’s Kandhamal district, the
epicenter of anti-Christian violence in 2008, but the government
reportedly confined it to Bhubaneswar, the state capital.

The delegation canceled the four-day trip this evening (Jan. 27),
saying it was not worth visiting only the capital.

John Dayal, a member of the National Integration Council and secretary
general of the All India Christian Council, expressed “deep surprise”
at the government’s action.

The federal and Orissa state governments have repeatedly asserted that
there is “total peace” in Kandhamal and proper legal processes are
being carried out, Dayal says.

“If this indeed be so, what then is there to hide from the view of the
world?” he asked.

“The real culprits of the anti-Christian pogrom have got away,” Dayal
said.

The visit would have helped the team assess the progress of relief and
rehabilitation for the victims as well as the effectiveness of the
fast track courts set up to try cases against those accused of
violence against Christians.

The 10-member diplomatic team was to have been led by Ramon Moreno,
deputy chief of mission in the Spanish embassy in New Delhi.

The mission was only approved after more than a year of negotiations
with the federal government. The team was scheduled to meet Archbishop
Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, who heads the Catholic Church
in Orissa, on Jan. 28.

Dhirendra Panda, a human right activist in Orissa, criticized the
government’s actions.

“The very fact the government refuses the international community to
visit Kandhamal shows it has something to hide,” Panda, a secularist
Hindu, told UCA News.

Panda is demanding an explanation for the ban on visiting Kandhamal,
especially after it claimed it the situation had returned to normal.
The government stance will damage the country’s image around the
world, he says.

Father Dibyasingh Pariccha, a lawyer working among the riot victims,
says the government fears the diplomat’s visit would expose the fact
that people are still deprived of basic amenities.

Bipra Charan Nayak, convener of Sampradayika Hinsa Prapidita
Sanghathan (associations of survivors of Kandhamal communal violence),
says the government “did not dare to show to the world the injustice
meted out to a certain sections of its people.”

The European Union was vocal in its concern about the riots from the
moment they broke out on Aug. 24, 2008. French President Nicolas
Sarkozy confronted Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at an India-EU
summit in 2008.

Singh then said the violence against Christian minorities in Orissa
was “a national shame.”

Source: UCAN

Documents of the Association of Kandhamal Violence Victims

(ASSOCIATION OF VICTIMS OF KANDHAMAL COMMUNAL VIOLENCE)

At/Po- MundaSahi, Balliguda, Kandhamal, Ph-9438072385

Letter no-10/2010. Date:13.0.10-

To

The Chief Justice,

Orissa High Court,

Cuttack, Orissa.

Sub: Demand for the urgent steps against communal elements.

Your Honour,

We the undersigned members of the Sampradayik Hinsa Prapidita Sangathana (Association of Victims of Communal Violence in Kandhamal), Kandhamal District, Orissa, herewith present this memorandum for your appropriate action.

Soon after the unprecedented Kandhamal communal violence, the Government of Orissa set two Fast Track Courts to expedite the many criminal cases arising from the communal violence directed against the Christian community. The Courts, and the Court premises, have however become a travesty of justice. One of the presiding judges and the police have caused us deep concern as we fear a major miscarriage of justice for the following reasons:

1. The sense of insecurity among witnesses is adding to the gross miscarriage of justice in the two Fast Track courts. Victims and witnesses are being coerced, threatened, cajoled and sought to be bribed by murderers and arsonists facing trial. Shoddy police investigations have already created a crisis in the dispensation of justice, and even genuine eye witnesses are reneging in court as they see the court premises full of top activists of fundamentalist organizations and often the same persons who had burnt their houses. The police mute watchers, as always. The witnesses are threatened in their homes, and even their distant relatives are being coerced.

1. In the current volatile political situation, we fear with reason that religious political leaders and former ministers are influencing the district administration and judiciary system along with communal elements in Kandhamal.

2. Even the media has reported at the strange situation in the two Fast Track court of Ad hoc Additional Session Judges which are trying all the murder and arson cases against Legislative Assembly Member Manoj Pradhan. Though witnesses have deposed strongly on his involvement in the crimes, he has been let off in case after case.

3. The accused Manoj Pradhan, BJP MLA, threatened one of the witnesses in front of the police personnel inside the Fast Track Court, and he also threatened the police.

4. Till today communal elements are still threatening the witnesses in the remote villages where they live, due to which the witnesses are in panic and do not dare to speak in the court. Many witnesses have even refused to come to court as they do not dare to travel anymore.

5Around 20 to 25 advocates are arguing for the defense, and the Public Prosecutors are not able to cope with the volume of work every day.

6. While we do not want to cast any aspersions on the PPs, their actions have left us in great doubt.

7. We also have strong doubts in the quality of the police investigations which are making it easy for the guilty to go scot free.

8. It is a matter of serious concern that it is more than one year passed the affected households is yet to be enlisted in the government list for compensation depriving them all the support and rehabilitation. It is crime against humanity as the hapless and helpless victims abandoned to look for themselves. There is gross malpractice due to corrupt and indifference attitude of the local officials, who have not list the fully damaged houses as fully, but partially thus effectively depriving the compensation and supports. We demand immediate assessment and support.

9. Due to prolong violent and fearful environment, the families have left the villages. Taking advantages of this, the fringe elements and criminal elements of Sangh Parivar has looted the household articles and assets thus rendering the families bereft of any assets. We demand proper and full assessment be done and compensate the families suitably.

10. The compensation packages declared by the state Govt. for the damage households are very meager amount which is not sufficient for the house construction. Conversely, these packages are much less than the compensation packages provided to the Sikh and Godhra riots victims. Proportionate package should be provided to the Kandhamal victims also.

We seek urgent actions from Your Honour in the interests of justice such as shifting the sensitive cases related to Manoj Pradhan to outside, to Cuttack or Bhubaneswar, transferring the judges and changing public prosecutors, provide special protection to witnesses.

Yours faithfully

Convenor

SHPS, Kandhamal, Orissa.

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(ASSOCIATION OF VICTIMS OF KANDHAMAL COMMUNAL VIOLENCE)

At/Po- MundaSahi, Balliguda, Kandhamal, Ph-9438072385

Letter no-11/2010 Date:13.01.201-

To

Hon’ble Justice Sri Sarat Chandra Mahapatra,

Chairman, Inquiry Commission for Kandhamal Violence,

At State Guest House,

Bhubaneswar.

Sub: Boycott of the Hon’ble Commission by SHPS Association.

Your Honour,

We the undersigned members of the Sampradayik Hinsa Prapidita Sangathana (Association of Victims of Kandhamal violence), Kandhamal herewith present this memorandum to inform you of our decision to boycott the Inquiry Commission for the under-mentioned reasons:

1During your days visit to Kandhamal you made a statement stating, inter alia, that the Kandhamal violence is not communal violence but is of ethnic origin. This statement you made even before a proper inquiry was begun. [Enclosed is copy of one of the media reports.]

2After the Commission began hearings, you made it a practice to brief the press on your “judgment” or ruling of the day.

3. The Commission formulated leading questions on issues such as conversions which were sociological in nature and in fact would further incite the violence which was still going on unchecked.

4. Responsible public officers like Pravin Kumar, police Superintendent, former and present police DG Gopal Nanda and Monmohan Praharaj were made to give the absurd but sensitive statements about religious conversion as if it was crime and then what role Police had taken to control the crime. The Police officers did not tell about why they could not prevent the march of funeral procession of Swami Laxmanananda with instigated mobs. Such statements caused further desperation among the witnesses and victims fighting their cases in Fast Track Courts and aggravated the situation. They should be summoned and held responsible for these acts.

5. BJP president, Suresh Pujari’s presence inside the Courts is threatening to the witnesses and inspiring the culprits. Moreover he is allowed to enter into the commission chamber under garb of a lawyer and before the press meet is conducted.

6. Recently, in response to the question of Mr. Adikanda Sethy, MLA, Chhtrapur; the Chief Minister, Mr. Navin Pattnaik, said in the Assembly that the RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal activists were involved in the Kandhamal violence. The commission should summon the records of the Assembly and take note of this as part of its proceedings, which it has not said it has done.

7. Your media statements have shown clearly that you have pre-decided and have already come to the conclusion about the violence without going through all the evidence that could have come before the Commission if it had proceeded without pre-conceptions and patent bias.

In the face of all these, we are left in no other position than to boycott the proceedings of the Honorable commission, holding it biased and its statements based on preconceived notions which are not rooted in facts or investigations.

Yours faithfully

Convenor

SHPS, Kandhamal, Orissa.

Encls:

Justice Sarat Chandra Mahapatra statement before first affidavits

Newsreader, “Justice Sarat Chandra Mahapatra commission enquiring into Kandhamal violence has issued a notification for the general public to submit affidavits by 15th (of Number 2009).

Based on the affidavits, the commission shall develop framework/procedures on 28th of this month.

In the meanwhile, Justice Mahapatra commission after his visit to Kandhamal in his preliminary assessment stated, “Communalism is not the primary reason for the riot.”

Reporter: Justice Mahapatra is not ready to accept that Kandhamal incidence is communal conflict. Justice Mahapatra appointed to make enquiry into Kandhamal violence said, “The problems are ages. It cannot be attributed to the bitterness of the two communities”. “Likewise, in order to find out the reasons for killing of swami and the violence thereafter and the role of the administration in aftermath of the killing, and the hand of external forces to intensify the conflicts have to be looked into it” he said.

Justice Mahapatra’s voice, “Administration, social and political when all these combined, discontentment got deepened and it manifested from the killing of Laxmanananda”.

Reporter: In the meanwhile in order to know the opinions of the general public about Kandhamal incident, Justice Mahapatra has issued a notification:

The murder of Swami Laxmanananda and the violence thereafter; The involvement of individuals and the role of community; Anticipation of riot and the preventive measures taken for the riot the hand of individuals/institutions inciting Kandhamal incident should be submitted before the Enquiry Commission before 15^th ( of November).

Justice Mahapatra commission: ‘If affidavits submitted in large numbers, then my enquiry could objective and impartial’.

Reporter: After 28th hearing, the next course of action will be decided by Justice Mahapatra Commision. Last month, from 14th to 21st (14thto 21st of October 2009), Justice Mahapatra has visited different parts of Kandhamal and interacted with the local people and at the administration’. Report by Radhamadhav Mishra, OTV.

Source: OTV, Orissa
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(ASSOCIATION OF VICTIMS OF KANDHAMAL COMMUNAL VIOLENCE)

At/Po- MundaSahi, Balliguda, Kandhamal, Ph-9438072385

Letter no-12/2010 Date: 13.01.201-

To

Shri Naveen Patnaik,

Chief Minister,

Orissa

We the undersigned members of the Sampradayik Hinsa Prapidita Sangathana (Association of Victims of Kandhamal Communal Violence), Kandhamal district, Orissa, herewith present this memorandum for your appropriate action.

1. During the year 2007 and 2008 the district of Kandhamal was violently impacted by violence instigated by some communal elements who attacked innocent Christians in a planned and brutal manner.

2

3In this violence, 5347 houses were looted and destroyed by fire, many women and girls were raped, and more than 75 people were murdered in the name of religion and ethnicity. Large-scale displacement and migrations followed with over 50,000 people becoming refugees in their own motherland. The culprits of this inhuman activity are roaming freely, neither arrested nor punished. We demand their immediate arrest, trial and exemplary punishment.

4The Government of Orissa has appointed the Sarat Chandra Mahapatra Commission to inquire into the Kandhamal violence and place its report before the Government. From the very beginning Justice Mahapatra has maintained that the violence is ethnic and in its interim report it sidelined and ignored the role of RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal. Needless to mention here that your Excellency has clearly exposed the involvement of such organizations in the Orissa Assembly. We have no option but to express our doubts on his impartiality and demand that the Commission be dissolved.

5We feel that the district administration and police instead of unearthing the facts behind Kandhamal carnage are resorting irrational conclusions and judgments with regard to the religious conversions of Christian community. In their depositions before the Mahapatra Commission, they have tried this or that way to find fault with the victims instead of reviewing their role and responsibilities. When creates the communal tension and this kind of irresponsible blaming may cause future conflict. Hence we demand appropriate action against these officers.

6The relief and rehabilitation provided is not sufficient against the damage occurred to the life and property during Kandhamal violence. There are also no records as regards to the number of people got forcefully migrated to other places as a result of violence. We demand for the re-assessment of the damage and provide the compensation to the affected families and take necessary measures to enable the migrated people to come back.

7We demand a special package for the violence affected people and ensure its proper implementation. This package should include land, income generation, education and health care, etc., so that the poor innocent people who have lost everything can be rehabilitated properly.

8We are not satisfied with the legal procedures undertaken in the two Fast Track courts established at Phulbani which seem to be in a hurry to dispose of the cases without proper trial and witness examination. The witnesses are threatened by the accused, and hence the witness protection is most essential to deliver justice. We demand the protection of witnesses by the Government with proper support and care.

9

10In most of the cases are finalized in the Fast Track courts at Phulbani the accused are acquitted. The quality of the Police charge sheets is doubtful; and therefore we demand a CBI inquiry into the cases for proper delivery of justice to the innocent people.

11It has been propagated that Scheduled caste people are guilty of land grabbing by Scheduled Tribes in the district of Kandhamal which has created the ethnic conflict. But this is apportioning blame without any proof or basis. We demand proper settlement of land in the district. Particularly, please ensure to allot lands to landless. The Government should publish a “white paper” on the land issue.

12The “fake caste certificate” issue has created a lot of confusion without a proper investigation and basis. Out of eight hundred caste certificate cases, only one hundred cases have been investigated. It is a matter of grate concern that only for a very few cases, around one Lakh people are blamed. We demand the Government to publish a “white paper” on these issues and take appropriate measures against the officials involved in issuing the fake certificate. The government prepares reports based on officials who are in hand in glove with facist sangh parivar , who are hell bent on creating conflicts among ST and SC reasons behind; thus furthering the violent atmosphere.

13

14Till today many of the victims of Kandhamal violence are staying in the village level relief camps. They get continuously threatened not to stay in the villages. They are not allowed to avail the local materials (wood, water, sand, etc.) for the house construction. Hence we demand for identifying those villages and take appropriate action by ensuring safety and security of the victims.

15We demand exemplary action against those police officials who had supported the violence and remained quiet, instead of providing security to our life and properties.

16It is a matter of serious concern that it is more than one year passed the affected households is yet to be enlisted in the government list for compensation depriving them all the support and rehabilitation. It is crime against humanity as the hapless and helpless victims abandoned to look for themselves. There is gross malpractice due to corrupt and indifference attitude of the local officials, who have not list the fully damaged houses as fully, but partially thus effectively depriving the compensation and supports. We demand immediate assessment and support.

17Due to prolong violent and fearful environment, the families have left the villages. Taking advantages of this, the fringe elements and criminal elements of Sangh Parivar has looted the household articles and assets thus rendering the families bereft of any assets. We demand proper and full assessment be done and compensate the families suitably.

18 The compensation packages declared by the state Govt. for the damage households are very meager amount which is not sufficient for the house construction. Conversely, these packages are much less than the compensation packages provided to the Sikh and Godhra riots victims. Proportionate package should be provided to the Kandhamal victims also.

Yours’ Sincerely,

Convenor

SHPS, Kandhamal, Orissa.

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(ASSOCIATION OF VICTIMS OF KANDHAMAL COMMUNAL VIOLENCE)

At/Po- MundaSahi, Balliguda, Kandhamal, Ph-9438072385

Letter no-13/2010 Date: 13.01.201--

To

The Chairman,

Press Council of India,

New Delhi.

Sub: Prayer to Review the role of media in Orissa during Kandhamal Communal Violence 2007 & 2008.

Sir,

On behalf of victims of Kandhmal riot 2007-08, we would like to draw your kind attention to see how the print and electronics media played a devastating role during Kandhamal incident. Particularly Oriya print media played an anti-minority role and portrayed victims as villain. Media failed in its duty as the true watchdog of society and went on circulating misinformation, inciting stories against minorities and biased view points. The genuine concerns of well-meaning citizens and sufferings poor adivasis and dalits have been ignored and had got no place or a wrong place in media.

Therefore, we request you to look into the matter and review the role of media in Kandhamal incident and take necessary steps to censure the defaulters and bring back them to play the role of a fourth pillar of Indian democracy. To support our views, we do attach some evaluating papers prepared by writer and journalist Sri Kedar Mishra, who is working in this field since last 2 years (http://www.kedarmishra.blogspot.com/).

Yours Sincerely,


Convenor

SHPS, Kandhamal, Orissa.

ANNEXURE:

Kandhamal Riot and Mass Media

“To be true to my faith, therefore, I may not write in anger or malice, I may not write idly. I may not write merely to excite passion”

·Mahatma Gandhi, Young India Censure

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·“Kandhamal is burning,” “Church Torched in Kandhamal”, “Kandhamal is simmering again”, etc. made headlines in the newspapers of Orissa. Here I make an attempt to study the way the mass media has depicted the life devastated in the Kandhamal riot of December 2007 and analyse it and the role it has played in the state politics centring the riot-affected people. In trying to make an analysis of it I have taken into consideration the news and articles on Kandhamal riot, the interviews with the journalists involved in it, clippings of electronic media, the news on the net and reports of fact-finding groups. The mass media unanimously agree that the riot affecting the Christmas in last December is out and communal in nature and is based on intolerance.

·

·Even if a dividing line was attempted to be drawn between international, national and local media, both electronic and in print, on the nature and cause of this riot, all of them had established it the same way. The Hindu fundamentalist Rastriya Syamsevak Sangh had made one such attempt in the local and national media. The report on January 3, 2008 inwww.sanghaparivar.com ran:

·“Many media, mostly the national and international, without a reality check – went overdrive to paint a wrong picture about the entire sequence of events. Very few investigated the reasons of the violence put the blame squarely on the Hindus. Only burning of churches and prayer houses were reported, not the lethal attack on the Hindu seer Laxmanananda Saraswati found due place in the newspapers. Not the death of a Hindu - which was immediate provocation for the communal clash – was properly highlighted. Even Maoists joining hands with Christians in attacking tribals were ignored by the international and national media.”

·

·However, the vernacular press predominantly reflected what actually happened on the ground and found Christians being the initiator of the latest hostility between the communities. The followers of Christ faith wee in the forefront of attack and they attacked Hindu hamlets and attacked the police and even collaborated with Maoists in attacking the kondh tribals, they reported.

·Warning for the Local Media

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·This news of RSS is untrue and motivated. Almost all the local newspapers and TV channels have clearly stated that the Christians were worst affected in this riot and that they were the victims of the hatred-based politics of RSS. Here are mentioned a few excerpts from the newspapers:

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·“The Brahmanigaon and Daringbadi are tense due to mutual distrust. There are clashes and house-burnings. No particular community can be blamed for this. The minority community had to face the wrath and violence of the majority. Even after getting the intelligence report the Administration did not take necessary steps. As a result of which the riot spread to nearby regions. The Viswa Hindu Parishad played a major role in the worst affected village, Brahmanigaon; so did the majority of Christians in Daringbadi. After its primary investigation the Samaj reported that the Viswa Hindu Parishad and the controversial Collector of the district, Bhabagrahi Mohapatra were solely responsible for the communal riot that began on the last twenty-fourth. The Parishad says that the riot ensued after its leader Swami Laxmananda was attacked which is not true. Rather, it was the VHP which first initiated it in Brahmanigaon”.

·(The Samaj, December 30, 2007)

·

·On 25th evening more than 3000 supporters of VHP and RSS came to Barakhama with weapons and lathis. They began with looting and ended with damaging property. The houses of 285 Christians were burnt within an hour. 215 houses were half-burnt or damaged. Lakhs of rupees, golden ornaments and costly home appliances were looted. Even the pet animals were not spared.

·

·These two reports have clearly held Sangha Parivar responsible for riot. Both the electronic media and mass media have firmly condemned the role of Sangha Parivar. There is yet a conspiracy in branding the local media as the sympathizer of the Sangha Parivar. A dividing line was also drawn regarding the true nature of the local and national media in the Gujarat riot. The Gujurati media was said to be the blind supporter of the Sangha Parivar. This divisive role of the Sangh Parivar is nothing new. The Sangh Parivar lauded the local media to have used local identity as a weapon.


THE MENTAL CONCLICT IN MASS MEDIA

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·If one looks at the reports of all the three TV channels from Orissa. i.e. ETV, OTV and Doordarshan and Oriya dailies it will be clear that the true causes of the riot have not been deeply analyzed. Its one reason is the religious meanness and elite mind set. It is alleged by some Christian organizations that as the local media is in the hands of the high caste Hindus the Christian minority has not got its due. This allegation is not absolutely baseless. No doubt, the Sangha Parivar has been implicated in this riot. Yet at the same time the Christians have been held accused for their role in conversion. Another aspect of these reports is its lack of study and analysis. One can very well discern the mental conflicts of the reporting journalists. Even if they report that the Sangh Parivar is responsible for the riot they somehow entangle the Christian minority in it.

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·The purported attack on Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati on the 24th was grossly exaggerated in the media. The journalists took Swamiji’s words as the base of their reporting. The opinions of both the parties present there were not taken into consideration. The ETV report gave so much importance to it that the later incidents were ascribed to the ETV’s reporting. The mass media is equipped with the power to unearth the conspiracy of communalism and has the responsibility to abate it. The local media has failed in this role. Our journalists have made the maximum utilization of their imagination in describing the plight of the riot-affected people. All that the affected people said lacked the element of suffering in it. It is a matter of shame. The statements of Swami Laxmananda and the leaders at Sangh Parivar occupy prominent position in the news reports. The statements of the affected Christians have been deliberately ignored. Our local media seem to be totally ignorant of the sense of dignity and sympathy which is there for the minorities in a democracy.

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·On the other hand, all those national dailies which have local editions give importance to the statement of the government officials. The reportings for the Times of India, Indian Express, The Pioneer, the Hindu, etc. were done from the Secretariate in Bhubaneswar. By giving importance to what the Chief Minister, the Chief Secretary, the Home Secretary and Director General, Police said the national dailies overlooked the true nature of the incident. Very few journalists visited the riot affected area.

·Kandhamal burnt from Christmas to New Year. All the political parties and the Sangh Parivar tried to fish out of the troubled water. Ironically, the mass media boosted their image. It has been stated earlier that the local media lacked sensitivity to deal with communal feelings. No newspaper or electronic media tried to analyse the situation. Instead, their erroneous reporting stoked the riot.

THE CONSPIRACY OF THE SANGH PARIVAR

·“There is no use burning tyres on the road. Tell me, how many houses of the Christians you have burnt? There will be no peace without revolution. Narendra Modi brought about revolution in Gujurat. That is why peace is there.”

In response to the so-called attack on him, the eighty-two-year-old Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati had made this statement from the Daringbari Health Centre in the very presence of the police and journalists. Surprisingly it was given more prominence in the national media than in the local ones. The reason is obvious. The local media did not want to displease the Swami and the Hindu majority reader as a whole. The proprietors of the Oriya dailies who are more interested in making profit than upholding ideals prefered indifference to neutrality in such a sensitive issue. The Fourth Estate had not come forward to give protection to the minority community. After the riot when it was compared with that of Gujarat at the rational and international level, the Sangh Parivar used the local media. They had argued that it was caste-based and that it was not communal in nature. Radhakant Nayak, the previous administrator and present Congress M. P., was implicated in it. Another matter of surprise was that his reaction was not sought in this regard. At the time of riot the Sangh Parivar demanded the arrest of Radhakant Nayak who was staying at Delhi. The local media seemed to give importance to the unjustified demand of the Sangh Parivar. The opinions of all the sections of the society were not taken into consideration at the time of the riot or after that. The local media did not bother as to why the Sangh Parivar was demanding the arrest of Radhakant Nayak. All of them comepeted to present their reports in a manner conduicive to the BJD-BJP coalition government. The ex-Minister Padmanav Behera who was made a scapegoat was not given adequate scope to express his opinion.

·

·At the time Kandhamal was burning The Samaj carried a report based on the interview with Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, in which it was stated that conversion was the root cause of unrest at Kandhamal. This report published from Cuttack rather than abating the Kandhamal riot fuelled it. The report ran like this :

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·The Government as well as the missionaries engaged in conversion are responsible for the situation in Kandhamal. They could be the trouble-shooter. The path-finder for the VHP, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati has stated that the Hindus are only defending themselves. After the alleged attack by the Christians on 24th, Swami Laxmanananda being treated in Cabin No.3 of the Surgery Department gave an exclusive interview to The Samaj in which he said that the missionaries are trying to establish special Christian zones in the divided districts of Bhulbani, Koraput, Kalahandi, Bolangir and in Bhanjanagar of the district Ganjam, Khandapada of the district of Nayagarh and in Anugul and Athamalik. For this money flows from such Christian countries like the U.S. and the U.K. The Swami and his supporters are working towards the preservation of Hinduism. Their efforts have resulted in the drastic reduction in conversion and many converted Christians have come back to the Hindu fold. Infuriated at it, some people have attempted to kill him. Asked about the possible solution to this problem at Kandhamal, Swamiji has said that this was the spontaneous protest of the Hindus. No government can stop this. The age-old dissatisfaction of the Hindus are now ventilated. In it he had no role to pay. After massive protest the missionaries desisted from conversion but after the Congress Party came to power they have become active. If the conversion comes to an end there will automatically be no unrest in the state. Giving information on the event of the 24th, Swamiji who does not want to reveal his past said that day he along with his five supporters set out by a Marshal Jeep from Jalespeta to Brahmanigaon. At Daringbari which is five kilometers from Daringbari there stood a bus obstructing traffic. Despite repeated horns when the bus did not move the driver of Marshal jeep Naresh Kanhr and Kishore Pradhan accosted the bus driver. That was when they were attacked by the people in the bus along with the villagers who rushed there. It was by his presence of mind that Naresh had a narrow escape. Out of three hundred families in that village only one was a Hindu family. From this figure one can realize the grave situation in Kandhamal, says the Swamiji who has been active against conversion in Kandhamal.

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·The language and tone of this report must have suited the Hindu fundamentalists. The local media has made tremendous effort to establish Laxmanananda Saraswati as the symbol of Hinduism. Praising him, The Organiser, the mouth piece of the Sangh Parivar wrote. “Four-decade-long sadhana at Chakapad has successfully awakened the spirit of Hindutva among the Vanavasis and drawn them away from the clutches of missionaries.” But this Sanyasi is more immersed in power politics than in meditation. It is due to his leadership at Chakapad that Kandhamal is kept burning. No media has questioned Laxmanananda. All of them have been showing respect to this old sanyasi. There is no problem in showing respect to a religious man. But the role of Laxmanananda is that of a villain since in the name of stopping conversion and ensuing a process of purification he has only created an atmosphere of religious intolerance. We get the hint of it from the description of the turn of events. The media is agog in the description of events as it is laudatory in highlighting Laxmanananda. The mental inflict in media is due to this paradoxical stand.

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·Tehelka 19, January 2008 described Laxmanananda as belonging to washerman community and that he established an ashrama at Chakapad in 1969, from where he started propagating Hinduism. As the Hindu Sanyasis keeps his past a secret one could not have got to know anything about Laxmanananda from his own mouth. Laxmanananda Saraswati has been publicly saying that he has been trying since 1969 when he established an ashram at Chakapad to save Kandhamal from being a totally Christian dominated area. Even as his statements are loaded with elements that is prone to creating tension the local media has been lionizing him. Before riot ensued at Brahmanigaon, Laxmanananda repeatedly held meetings there and provoked the public to attack the Christians. Although he has been directly or indirectly involved in stoking riot he has not been arrested. This old sage plays a clear role in speaking ill against the Christian missionaries and the Dalit Christians of Kandhamal, in blocking roads and in staging hunger strikes and above all keeping Kandhamal in unrest.

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·The 2007 Kandhamal riot was not all unpremeditated. It was aimed at eliminating the minority Christians from Kandhamal. Laxmanananda played a leading role in the agitation to establish a Hindu rashtra. On the occasion of the birth centenerary of one of the leaders of Sangha Parivar on April 2006 the Sangh parivar organized Astamatruka Rath Yatra in Kandhamal. Indians are suffering yet from the poisonous reaction of Lal Krishna Advani’s Rath Yatra in the context of Ram Janmabhumi. There has been repeated Ratha Yatras in Kandhamal. The anti-christian slogans are kept alive through Yajna, Yatra and Purification process. The Sangh Parivar rose in protest against the breaking of Rama Setu in Tamil Nadu. Regular conspiracies were hatched in Chakapad Ashram. The local Administration was aware of it yet no perceptible steps were taken. Instead of projecting Hindu Sameelan of April 2006 as communal in nature it was showcased as a religious jamborree. The local minority had to face its consequences in December 2007. It was not an end in itself. Even today Kandhamal remains an insecure place for the minorities. On July 8, 2008 there was tension in Kandhamal which centred round the slaughter of a cow.

·The Dharitri, July 10, 2008 writes on it “Again Kandhamal is burning. No sooner the people of Kandhamal have forgotten the trauma of the riot of December 2007 than there has risen tension in Tumuribandh. That to, it centres around the slaughter of a cow. The conflict within the communities is simmering in Mattipara of Tamudibandh Block. At this time due to the opposition of a Baba in Jalespeta to the slaughter of a cow he has been attacked. Opposing this incident the VHP has called for a strike in Kandhamal. So far the Bandh is peaceful.”

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·In another report The Samaj says, “It has been noticed that Tumudibandh Block of Kandhamal district is going to be a site of another riot. Only one kilometer away from the headquarters of this Block, where the cow was slaughtered and against which there was protest, Bulubaba alias Brundaban Nanda who is the chief disciple of Laxmanananda Saraswati was attacked. It had a state-wide reaction. With the spread of the news of Bulubaba’s camera being snatched away, the blood of the slaughtered cow being smeared on him and the attack on him, the Bandh was observed in G. Udaygiri, Raikia, Baliguda and Tumudibandh and VHP called for a twelve-hour Bandh throughout the State.

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·As in previous riots, the media did not play a neutral role in this riot. The allegations that Swami Laxmanananda and his disciples brought forward were blown out of proportion. The non-Hindus eat beef; no Hindu has any right to snatch away that right from them. The motive beheind Laxmanananda’s and his brigand’s protest is only to create tension. In a secular state it is a matter of irony that sanyasi should be encouraged in mass media to indulge in mean activities like blocking the road by cutting down trees, holding hunger strike abusing the minority and blaming the Administration if it is not supportive of his activities.

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·EDITORIAL IRRESPONSIBILITY

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·The local media has failed utterly to analyze and evaluate the Kandhamal riot. So did the Administration, civic society, political parties, local leadership and the police. If one analyses the reports and editorials of the local papers it will show clearly how they have failed to hint at the failure of others. The Kandhamal riot started on 24th. The Samaj in its 30th and 31st December 2007 and 1st January 2008 editions carried three reports under the title “Postmortem”. Those three reports were full of contradictions, and were misleading. While The Samaj blamed in its first report the VHP, it blamed the Christians in the second and the Naxals in the third report for the riot at Kandhamal. One thing that is clear from it that The Samaj was not sure about its stand in this issue. The most interesting thing was that there was not even a single statement of any affected person in their one thousand and five hundred-word article. Nor were the opinions or reactions of the minority community placed in it. The report on 31.12.2007 ran like this:

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Getting foreign fund, support of two retired IAS Officers and encouragement of local MPs the Christians in the sensitive district of Kondhmal are said to be getting more and more strengthened. As a consequence, the caste-based conflict of Kondhmal has taken the shape of communal riot. The Kondh-Panos conflict was the main conflict in Kondhmal but two retired IAS Officers and the local MP have started encouraging the Christians. The pouring of foreign fund has acted like ghee in fire. In no circumstances the tribals of Kondhmal fall victim to the allurements of the Christians to get converted. The two retired IAS officers are exercising their power and contact to get funds for tempting the tribals. It has come to such a stage that if there are five wards in a village there are five churches or prayer halls in that village. With their blessing from those officers and MPs the Panoss try to show off their affluence to the tribals and poor Hindus. This has resulted in a large scale dissatisfaction even among the tribal Christians. While the tribals are Baptists the Panoss are Roman Chatholics. Only in Siarigaon of Katingia Panchayat and in Saraguda some tribals are Roman Catholics. Baliguda, Ghumusar, Udayagiri, Nuagaon and Daringbadi Blocks have a large number of Christians in comparison to other Blocks of the district.

·
What could be the purpose of this report? It is childish to claim that riots become frequent with the increase of numbers of prayer halls and organizations of the minority community. It is still more ridiculous to make issues out of it in prominent newspapers. Due to baseless and misleading reports people become biased. It is surprising that the journalist who was asks the minority community people about their foreign funding does not ask the same question to the Hindu fundamentalists. Nobody asks whose assistance has helped the Chakapad Ashram grow in the last twenty years. Where from do crores of rupees come to support the Hindu organization and its movement? Before bringing Radhakant Naik, John Naik and Issac Behera to the witness box our journalists should not forget to ask the same question to the Orissa branch of BJP. While Kondhmal was bruning how did the newspaper publish in bold letters the BJP’s irresponsible statement “Kandhmal Riot is the creation of Christian NGOs?” The BJP leaders have not been questioned further about this statement in press conferences.

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·The Prajatantra on 17.1.2008 ran the following report:

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·The BJP has alleged that some organizations run by the Christians are responsible for the present riot at Kandhamal. For this purpose the names of some organizations and NGOs operating there have been published. Jewel Oram, a senior leader of BJP, in a press conference on Wednesday said that deceptive news is given currency. It is said that the Christians there are a minority. The Hindus have been oppressing them and that this not is created by VHP and BJP. But this is absolutely false. The truth is that the Hindus are a minority there and they are being oppressed instead. In Brahmanigaon Christians numbering about 5000 attacked the Hindus. Their houses were burnt. Visiting that area Jewel Oram came to know that those Christians were armed and supported by such NGOs as Action Aid, NISWAS, SFDC, Aama Gaon, CPSW and Alok Grama.

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·The communal politics operates on baseless and misleading facts. We get to hear such a voice from Jewel Oram. Here the question is whether the journalists should have quoted him in verbatim? He has only lied. He is not supported by facts when he is alleging anybody. It is nothing but political motivation to bring changes against any organization without facts and proofs. By encouraging such sick mentality the mass media is setting a dangerous trend.

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·On January 10, 2008 The Sambad carried an editorial essay by Banabihari Panda, the former Director General of Police. Such type of editorial page articles are supposed to be based on facts and analysis of those facts. But it was nothing but a collage of reports, rumours and so-called news. Banabihari Panda wrote:

·The event following it is attack on Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati. It was reported in the newspapers that about 200 people armed with lathis, sticks and spears stopped his vehicle and attacked him. This incident is solely responsible for the riot in Kandhamal. Many opine that had this incident not happened the riot would not have spread so rapidly. Therefore those who attacked him should be booked and punished. Some churches were burnt. That is to be condemned. Church is a prayer hall, where God is worshipped. Those who committed this crime should be punished. Likewise it is reported that five temples have been razed. Those who did it should be equally punished. Burning a church or breaking a temple is unpardonable. All those miscreants should punished.”

·

·It was never considered whether such an article should be carried as an editorial piece. There is no official report that any temple was razed in Kandhamal. The media did not report from this angle either. Some leaders like Jewel Oram have shamelessly claimed that the Christians are not a minority in Kandhamal. The population of the district of Kandhamal is 6,48,201. Out of that while 5,27,757 are Hindu 1,17,950 are Christian. Instead of refuting misleading facts of the leaders the media has highlighted them. Excepting a few stray villages in Kandhmal the rest of the villages have a minority of Christian population. The Sangh Parivar claimed that it is a caste-based conflict not a communal riot: so did the mass media.

·

·The Sangh Parivar has repeatedly changed its role in the context of the Kondhmal riot. If now it claims that Kondhmal unrest is due to conversion then it would say that it is merely caste-related conflict. In order to suppress the event the spokes person of the Sangh parivar, Ram Madhab had written in rediff.com on January 8, 2008, “We must not ignore the fact that Kondhmal is for that matter many such incidents have been a localized incident; not a phenomenon as the candlelightwalas should want us to believe.”

The Sangh Parivar had advised the civilized society to take it lightly. Further, that it was not a communal riot; rather there are many political reasons involved in it. And the local media knowingly or unknowingly acted as a facilitator. Within a week only three persons died while hundreds went missing. 71 churches, 48 prayer halls, 5 convent schools, 7 hostels, 2 vocational centres, more than 500 houses and 126 shops were burnt. Fire was the greatest weapon in it. In this heinous attempt to wipe out the minority the media did not even play a neutral, not to speak of a deterrent role.


WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RIOT?

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·The wound of the riot of December 2007 is yet to heal. Finding ever other excuse the Hindu fundamentalist organizations and the organizations at the district level at Kandhamal, supported by them have been blocking roads and staging demonstrations. Trying to analyze their causes the media have only misled the public opinion. They lack data. Even if they might have it they do not analyze it. In preparing this project I have collected and analysed more than 200 reports, articles, editorials and interviews. Some of the reports have already been analysed. The reports I have analysed have clearly reflected the mental conflict of the journalists and how they have confused the general public. The journalists never concentrated on certain required points. Those reports repeatedly blamed conversion and appropriation of land as main causes of riots. In its article, “Behind the Unrest of the Kondhmal” on July 11, 2008 The Sambad wrote:

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“Appropriation of land of the Adivasis is one of the major reasons which contribute towards conflict in Kondhmal. It is for years that deceptive methods have been taken to appropriate the lands of the Adivasis, thereby displacing them. As a result, they are like refugees in their own native place. The provision has it that a non-Adivasi cannot buy an Adivasi’s land. As per the Regulation II, 3 and 4, 1956 a special court has been created under the Sub-Collectors of Phulbani and Baliguda. Such cases are to be tried on priority basis in these courts while many cases of appropriation of Adivasi Lands by non-Adivasis are pending in this court. There are many instances when the Adivasis who won the decree have not been able to get back their lands due to lack of assistance of Administration and police. As there is a dearth of household and cultivable lands in Kondhmal its inhabitants are facing a lot of difficulty. If they get their household land and cultivation land much of their problems could be solved. In Kondhmal the loss of caste is another root cause of unrest.”

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·Reports of this kind have created a wrong idea among the people that it is caste-related conflict and not due to communal feeling. There is an attempt to draw a divisive line among the Panos and the Kandhas. Seventeen percent of the population of the district is of Dalit caste. Ninety percent of them are Christians. Eighty percent of them are landless. Without mentioning concrete cases our journalists have built a context. According to 2001 Census, of the total population of the district, i.e. 6,48,201, 3,36,809 are Adivasis. They constitute 52% of the total population. Another section has created conflict between 52% Adivasi and 17% Dalits. The mass media is precisely silent about them. It is a worth-mentioning fact that majority of the journalists of this district represent that third section. They are not the original inhabitants of the district. Coming from other districts they have bought the lands of the Adivasis and are settling there. Another strange fact is that in Kandhmal there are not much lands under the ownership of the raiyats. 88% of the land of the district is in the ownership of the government. Out of that 71% is reserved forest and 17% un-reserved forest. There is only 12% of the ownership of the land by the individuals. Those who benefit most from the 12% of the land are the ones who have come to and settled in Kandhamal. If an analysis of population growth of this district from 1961 to 2001 is made it will be like this: Adivasis 70%, Dalits 60%, whereas non-Adivasi and non-Dalit Hindus are 134%. This unnatural growth is the root of all problems. The Adivasis and Dalits are exploited; their lands are snatched away from them. In this regard both are victims of exploitation. The mass media has never given importance to it.

·

·As there is no cordial relationship between the Kandhas and Panos a fictitious history about them has been spread by the local Hindu fundamentalist organizations and political parties. Regarding it L. S. S. O’Malley says in his Bengal District Gazetteer, which was published in 1908:

In the Kandhamals, the Panos were the serfs of the Kandhas. They worked on their farms and wove cloth for them, in return for which they obtained a small area of land, grain for food and all their marriage expenses; they used also to procure victims for the Meriah sacrifices. Their serfdom was so well recognized that if a Panos left his master and worked for another, it caused serious dissensions among the Kandha community. To this day there is a settlement of Panos – a kind of Ghetto – attached to every large Kandha village, where they weave the cloth the Kandhas require and work as farm labourers. The picture remains more or less the same today except for the Meriah sacrifice. In lieu of Meriah, buffaloes are being procured for sacrifice.

The Adivasis and the Dalits are having a long history of living together. After the emergence of the fundamentalist Hindu organizations in the seventies there has been ebb in their relationship. Consequentially there have been more than five riots in Kandhamal since 90s. There have been repeated attempts to suppress the Christian organizations operating in this district. It has already been mentioned that there are more than five lakh Hindus in this district. Basically the Adivasis are not Hindus; they have their own customs and tradition. They have been constantly projected on the official as well as non-official levels as Hindus. When the Sangha Parivar started this programme in Orissa it chose Kandhamal as it is dominated by the tribals. It tried to inculcate in the Adivasis a feeling through different ways that they too are Hindus. Some local leaders who used adivasis to gain political mileage joined the Sangh parivar. The nexus between the Sangh parivar and the leaders of the Adivasis came to light during the riot. The joint efforts of the Kui society and the Sangh Parivar made the riot more complicated. That complication is yet to be untangled. Even today Kandhamal is tense and the lives of the minority community is threatened.

CONCLUSION

An internal feud has already been noticed between Kandhamal and mass media. The life story of the tribals and Dalits has rarely been rightfully portrayed in the local newspapers owned by high caste and higher class people. Different political parties have used the media very often to further their interest. The first newspaper to be published from Orissa, which was one hundred and fifty years ago and run by Christian missionaries was Prabodh Chandrika. It had carried news of the conflict between the Kandhas and the administrators of the colonizers. It ran like this:

·“The news has reached us that in Kandhamal early at dawn on December 6, many Kandhas armed with arrows attacked the Agent Sahib. The Agent had with him the Laskars. As the Kandhas shot arrows at him he ordered the Laskars to fire at them. One of the Kandhas died on the spot. Frightened, they retreated and are gathering at a distance. The reason as to why the Kandhas are acting like this is not yet clear.”

·

·At that time the Christian Missionaries could not lay a finger at the problems of Kandhas. They could dare to mention the incident clearly because they could not understand their problems. At a later period the missionaries had remarkably joined the colonizers in helping them in the field of health and education. That is why the number of Christians increased in Kandhamal. It was not just the Dalits who were converted. The Adivasis also followed the Dalits’ footsteps. It was possible due to the selfless service of the missionaries. There was no communal tension in Kandhamal till 70s of twentieth century. It was only after the appearance of the Sangh Parivar at Kandhmal that the poisonous seed was sown there, which has later sprouted into riots.

·

·The Editorial Guild of India has laid out categorical rules which should be followed while reporting the riots. I have already discussed how the media has failed to follow those rules in reporting riots from Kandhamal. Finally here I sum up some pertinent points regarding the reports of the media on riot at Kandhamal:

1. In the context of the Kandhamal riot, the media committed a major mistake by doing a wrong analysis of the basic facts regarding the district.

2. The language used in the media for the minority was one of disdain and pity, which is to be condemned.

3. No importance was attached to the opinion of the minority community. On the contrary, the statements of the fundamentalist Hindus and their organisations were dealt with in a great detail.

4. The intellectuals and experts in the field were not asked about their opinions on the riot. Whatever articles by the eminent persons that came out in the newspapers were by the retired IAS or IPS officers.

5. The opinions of the ones affected in the riot were never published. Another matter of regret is that the hearts of the journalists did not melt to present the sad tale of the victims. Very often the journalists wrote as per their whim. There was not much effort by the editors to look into it.

6. By mentioning the involvement of the Naxals in the movement against the industrialization and globalization the journalists have been only showing their true colours. There is no proof of the Naxal’s involvement in the religious or communal conflicts. The media unnecessarily tried to show the involvement of Naxals in the Kandhamal riot. In that ignoble effort they also tried to rope in some voluntary organizations and secular intellectuals.

7. In stead of following the journalistic norms, most of the reports were driven by political compulsions. It seems every newspaper reflected a particular party’s stand or an ism. In this case the tendency was more towards achieving political benefits rather maintaining high standard of humanitarianism. It has only left a stigma on the morality of the local media.

Kedar Mishra

POSTED BY KEDAR

lAN ANALYSIS OF MEDIA IN POST-KANDHAMAL VIOLENCE ODISHA

I am now writing an analysis on the reportings of Kandhamal violence in Odisha. The role of media is analysed here by an insider and it’s a criticism within media.

Kedar Mishra

(ASSOCIATION OF VICTIMS OF KANDHAMAL COMMUNAL VIOLENCE)

At/Po- MundaSahi, Balliguda, Kandhamal, Ph-9438072385

Letter no-14/2010. Date:13.01.10-

To

Her Excellency,

The President of India,

New Delhi

Sub:- Submission of the copy of the submitted memorandum.

Your Honour,

This is for your kind information that, we the undersigned members of the Sampradayik Hinsa Prapidita Sangathana (Association of Victims of Communal Violence in Kandhamal), Kandhamal District, Orissa, herewith present the copy of the memorandum submitted to chief justice of Orissa High Court, Inquiry commission of Kandhamal violence, Mr.Sarat Chandra Mahapatra, Retd.justice, Orissa high court, Mr. Navin Pattanaik, Chief Minister of Orissa and Press Council of India for the necessary and urgent action.

Yours sincerely

Convenor, SHPS, Kandhamal, Orissa.

(ASSOCIATION OF VICTIMS OF KANDHAMAL COMMUNAL VIOLENCE)

At/Po- MundaSahi, Balliguda, Kandhamal, Ph-9438072385

Letter no-15/2010. Date:13.01.10-

To

The Honorable Prime Minister of India,

New Delhi.

Sub:- Submission of the copy of the submitted memorandum.

Your Honour,

This is for your kind information that, we the undersigned members of the Sampradayik Hinsa Prapidita Sangathana (Association of Victims of Communal Violence in Kandhamal), Kandhamal District, Orissa, herewith present the copy of the memorandum submitted to chief justice of Orissa High Court, Inquiry commission of Kandhamal violence, Mr.Sarat Chandra Mahapatra, Retd.justice, Orissa high court, Mr. Navin Pattanaik, Chief Minister of Orissa and Press Council of India for the necessary and urgent action.

Yours sincerely

Convenor, SHPS, Kandhamal, Orissa.

(ASSOCIATION OF VICTIMS OF KANDHAMAL COMMUNAL VIOLENCE)

At/Po- MundaSahi, Balliguda, Kandhamal, Ph-9438072385

Letter no-16/2010. Date:13.01.10-

To

The Hon’ble Chairman,

National Human Rights Commission,

New Delhi

Sub:- Submission of the copy of the submitted memorandum.

Your Honour,

This is for your kind information that, we the undersigned members of the Sampradayik Hinsa Prapidita Sangathana (Association of Victims of Communal Violence in Kandhamal), Kandhamal District, Orissa, herewith present the copy of the memorandum submitted to chief justice of Orissa High Court, Inquiry commission of Kandhamal violence, Mr.Sarat Chandra Mahapatra, Retd.justice, Orissa high court, Mr. Navin Pattanaik, Chief Minister of Orissa and Press Council of India for the necessary and urgent action.

Yours sincerely

Convenor, SHPS, Kandhamal, Orissa.

(ASSOCIATION OF VICTIMS OF KANDHAMAL COMMUNAL VIOLENCE)

At/Po- MundaSahi, Balliguda, Kandhamal, Ph-9438072385

Letter no-17/2010. Date:13.01.10-

To

The Hon’ble Chairman,

State Human Rights Commission,

Orissa.

.

Sub:- Submission of the copy of the submitted memorandum.

Your Honour,

This is for your kind information that, we the undersigned members of the Sampradayik Hinsa Prapidita Sangathana (Association of Victims of Communal Violence in Kandhamal), Kandhamal District, Orissa, herewith present the copy of the memorandum submitted to chief justice of Orissa High Court, Inquiry commission of Kandhamal violence, Mr.Sarat Chandra Mahapatra, Retd.justice, Orissa high court, Mr. Navin Pattanaik, Chief Minister of Orissa and Press Council of India for the necessary and urgent action.

Yours sincerely

Convenor, SHPS, Kandhamal, Orissa.

(ASSOCIATION OF VICTIMS OF KANDHAMAL COMMUNAL VIOLENCE)

At/Po- MundaSahi, Balliguda, Kandhamal, Ph-9438072385

Letter no-18/2010. Date:13.01.10-

To

The Home minister,

Minister of Home affairs

Govt of India,

New Delhi.

Sub:- Submission of the copy of the submitted memorandum.

Your Honour,

This is for your kind information that, we the undersigned members of the Sampradayik Hinsa Prapidita Sangathana (Association of Victims of Communal Violence in Kandhamal), Kandhamal District, Orissa, herewith present the copy of the memorandum submitted to chief justice of Orissa High Court, Inquiry commission of Kandhamal violence, Mr.Sarat Chandra Mahapatra, Retd.justice, Orissa high court, Mr. Navin Pattanaik, Chief Minister of Orissa and Press Council of India for the necessary and urgent action.

Yours sincerely

Convenor, SHPS, Kandhamal, Orissa.

(ASSOCIATION OF VICTIMS OF KANDHAMAL COMMUNAL VIOLENCE)

At/Po- MundaSahi, Balliguda, Kandhamal, Ph-9438072385

Letter no-19/2010. Date:13.01.10-

To

The Minister of information and Bureau,

Govt of India,

New Delhi.

Sub:- Submission of the copy of the submitted memorandum.

Your Honour,

This is for your kind information that, we the undersigned members of the Sampradayik Hinsa Prapidita Sangathana (Association of Victims of Communal Violence in Kandhamal), Kandhamal District, Orissa, herewith present the copy of the memorandum submitted to chief justice of Orissa High Court, Inquiry commission of Kandhamal violence, Mr.Sarat Chandra Mahapatra, Retd.justice, Orissa high court, Mr. Navin Pattanaik, Chief Minister of Orissa and Press Council of India for the necessary and urgent action.

Yours sincerely

Convenor, SHPS, Kandhamal, Orissa.

(ASSOCIATION OF VICTIMS OF KANDHAMAL COMMUNAL VIOLENCE)

At/Po- MundaSahi, Balliguda, Kandhamal, Ph-9438072385

Letter no-20/2010. Date:13.01.10-

To

The Hon’ble Commission for Scheduled Caste,

Govt of India,

New Delhi.

Sub:- Submission of the copy of the submitted memorandum.

Your Honour,

This is for your kind information that, we the undersigned members of the Sampradayik Hinsa Prapidita Sangathana (Association of Victims of Communal Violence in Kandhamal), Kandhamal District, Orissa, herewith present the copy of the memorandum submitted to chief justice of Orissa High Court, Inquiry commission of Kandhamal violence, Mr.Sarat Chandra Mahapatra, Retd.justice, Orissa high court, Mr. Navin Pattanaik, Chief Minister of Orissa and Press Council of India for the necessary and urgent action.

Yours sincerely

Convenor, SHPS, Kandhamal, Orissa.

(ASSOCIATION OF VICTIMS OF KANDHAMAL COMMUNAL VIOLENCE)

At/Po- MundaSahi, Balliguda, Kandhamal, Ph-9438072385

Letter no-21/2010. Date:13.01.10-

To

The Hon’able Commission for Scheduled Tribe,

Govt of India,

New Delhi.

Sub:- Submission of the copy of the submitted memorandum.

Your Honour,

This is for your kind information that, we the undersigned members of the Sampradayik Hinsa Prapidita Sangathana (Association of Victims of Communal Violence in Kandhamal), Kandhamal District, Orissa, herewith present the copy of the memorandum submitted to chief justice of Orissa High Court, Inquiry commission of Kandhamal violence, Mr.Sarat Chandra Mahapatra, Retd.justice, Orissa high court, Mr. Navin Pattanaik, Chief Minister of Orissa and Press Council of India for the necessary and urgent action.

Yours sincerely

Convenor, SHPS, Kandhamal, Orissa.

(ASSOCIATION OF VICTIMS OF KANDHAMAL COMMUNAL VIOLENCE)

At/Po- MundaSahi, Balliguda, Kandhamal, Ph-9438072385

Letter no-22/2010. Date: 13.01.10-

To

The Hon’ble Governor,

Orissa, Bhubaneswar.

Sub:- Submission of the copy of the submitted memorandum.

Your Honour,

This is for your kind information that, we the undersigned members of the Sampradayik Hinsa Prapidita Sangathana (Association of Victims of Communal Violence in Kandhamal), Kandhamal District, Orissa, herewith present the copy of the memorandum submitted to chief justice of Orissa High Court, Inquiry commission of Kandhamal violence, Mr.Sarat Chandra Mahapatra, Retd.justice, Orissa high court, Mr. Navin Pattanaik, Chief Minister of Orissa and Press Council of India for the necessary and urgent action.

Yours sincerely

Convenor, SHPS, Kandhamal, Orissa.

(ASSOCIATION OF VICTIMS OF KANDHAMAL COMMUNAL VIOLENCE)

At/Po- MundaSahi, Balliguda, Kandhamal, Ph-9438072385

Letter no-23/2010. Date: 13.01.10-

To

The Chairman,

Editors Guild’s Of India,

New Delhi.

Sub:- Submission of the copy of the submitted memorandum.

Your Honour,

This is for your kind information that, we the undersigned members of the Sampradayik Hinsa Prapidita Sangathana (Association of Victims of Communal Violence in Kandhamal), Kandhamal District, Orissa, herewith present the copy of the memorandum submitted to chief justice of Orissa High Court, Inquiry commission of Kandhamal violence, Mr.Sarat Chandra Mahapatra, Retd.justice, Orissa high court, Mr. Navin Pattanaik, Chief Minister of Orissa and Press Council of India for the necessary and urgent action.

Yours sincerely

Convenor, SHPS, Kandhamal, Orissa.

(ASSOCIATION OF VICTIMS OF KANDHAMAL COMMUNAL VIOLENCE)

At/Po- MundaSahi, Balliguda, Kandhamal, Ph-9438072385

Letter no-24/2010. Date:13.01.10-

To

The Hon’able Commission for Minorities,

Govt of India,

New Delhi.

Sub:- Submission of the copy of the submitted memorandum.

Your Honour,

This is for your kind information that, we the undersigned members of the Sampradayik Hinsa Prapidita Sangathana (Association of Victims of Communal Violence in Kandhamal), Kandhamal District, Orissa, herewith present the copy of the memorandum submitted to chief justice of Orissa High Court, Inquiry commission of Kandhamal violence, Mr.Sarat Chandra Mahapatra, Retd.justice, Orissa high court, Mr. Navin Pattanaik, Chief Minister of Orissa and Press Council of India for the necessary and urgent action.

Yours sincerely

Convenor, SHPS, Kandhamal, Orissa.