From: catholicunion <catholicunion@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 10:04 PM
Subject: [PMARC] urgent
To: Dalits Media Watch <PMARC@dgroups.org>
REPORT OF THE ALL INDIA CHRISTIAN COUNCIL FACT FINDING TEAM
ON INCIDENTS IN BATALA AND OTHER AREAS OF PUNJAB
18-21 FEBRUARY 2010
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ISSUED ON MARCH 2, 2010
NOTE: The full fact finding report is available from aicc Delhi office: aiccdelhi@gmail.com
Attempted Murders
The Punjab police are hiding the fact that Sangh Parivar-led hoodlums in Batala, Punjab tried to burn five Christians alive. The Christians were from two families who live in the Church of North India's historic Church of the Epiphany compound built in 1865. Batala is a small business town in Punjab's Gurdaspur district. On February 20th, the CNI church was set on fire and all its furniture burnt. Attempts were made to destroy a nearby Salvation Army church, raised in 1958, where the pastor was seriously injured. "We pleaded with the police to help, but they did not," said the Pastor, Maj. Gurnam Singh.
Even as the larger group of attackers focused on burning the CNI church, a group of men armed with sticks and rods, and came to the CNI Deacon's house. The deacon, Victor Gill, and his wife Parveen, hid themselves under the bed. The assailants damaged the doors, tried to enter the room forcibly, and told the couple they would be burnt alive if they did not come out. Meanwhile, at a second CNI house, the group overturned a scooter, took out the petrol, and doused teacher Christopher Morris and his daughter Daisy with the fuel while the mother, Usha, cringed in their home. They tried to set the two on fire, but the matchbox had also been soaked in the petrol and despite three attempts to strike a match, the matchsticks would not ignite saving the family from being burnt alive. The police were watching. The fire brigade came later but was blocked by a mob for quite some time.
Police Bias
No police report has been filed on the attempted murders even as the top police and administrative officers enforced a one sided "peace accord" on the local Christian leadership. Christians were instructed not to press for charges immediately so that a number of Christian youth who were arrested – together with a few Hindu men – could be released. The strategy of the assailants was eerily reminiscent of what was practiced and perfected against churches in Orissa in 2008. Police forcibly cleaned up the Church of the Epiphany. They removed burnt furniture and made the presbyter whitewash the walls to remove traces of fuel oil used in the blaze. This was done before a formal enquiry could be conducted by the government.
Background on Violence
The Christians, all of them of Dalit origin, were trying to enforce a closure or "bandh" in Batala markets to protest a blasphemous picture of Jesus Christ holding a can of beer in one hand a lit cigarette in another which appeared on roadside banners to celebrate the Hindu "Ram Nauvmi" festival. The banners were sponsored by a coalition of local political, media and business leaders, together with the trading community which is almost entirely Hindu.
The Sangh Parivar reacted to the Christian protest by mobilising shopkeepers and youth in attacks that left many injured, two churches damaged, and clergy traumatised. We noted that local shopkeepers routinely enforce closures e.g. a bandh during the last week of February to protest the execution of two Sikhs by the Taliban in Pakistan.
Timeline
16-17 February -- people noticed Jesus Christ image on banners, newspapers, posters
18 February -- Jalandhar protests; two people arrested for printing posters
19 February -- road protests in various villages, violence in Majitha
20 February -- Batala churches burnt; widespread violence
21 February -- police firing on Christian protesters in Tibbar village and others places; many arrested, injured; peace accord reached in Batala
22 February -- curfew partially lifted
23 February -- curfew completely lifted
Police Reaction
The police force was outnumbered and looked on during the violence. Despite intelligence reports of the Christian anger and the Hindutva plans to counterattack, the sub-divisional magistrate of Batala, Mr. Rahul Chaba, PCS, said he could not enforce a quick curfew until late on 20 February 2010 because most of the police force were sent to the Pakistani border nearby where Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram inaugurated a defence outpost. By the time the police returned and a curfew was imposed, violence had already occurred. The curfew was relaxed on 22 February 2010.
Results of Violence and Political Reaction
On February 21st, protest rallies were held across the western districts of Punjab and in Chandigarh against the desecration of the churches. There were reports of police who broke up protest meetings in villages with lathi charges and indiscriminate arrests. At present, there are no Christians or Hindus in police custody barring the printer and publisher of the banners.
On February 23rd, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Prakash Singh Badal assured the aicc delegation's head, Dr. John Dayal, aicc Secretary General and member, National Integration Council, that he viewed the matter seriously and has ordered officials to unravel the "entire conspiracy". Dr. Dayal demanded a judicial enquiry into the incidents during the meeting.
Part of Larger Religious Discrimination in Punjab
At the last meeting of the National Integration Council in New Delhi on 13 October 2008 chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Dr. Dayal had personally briefed Mr. Badal on the tension brewing in the rural districts of western Punjab where tens of thousands of Christians, most of them of Dalit origin, live and are suffering from caste oppression and attacks on their freedom of religion. Church meetings are routinely denied permission, for example, and caste epithets are used against the Christians. The chief minister had promised to have the situation investigated and remedial action taken.
The recent incidents also exposed the utter lack of Christian representation among the Punjab government. Less than half a dozen Christian leaders, many of them related to each other, hold positions in the Akali Dal, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Indian National Congress. They have little connection with the masses living in villages, slums and poorly constructed ghettos outside some villages. Most live in shadow of mansions owned by local Jat Sikhs with relatives living abroad or the trading classes. Class and caste barriers are clearly evident. In some villages, we were shocked to find Dalit Christian working under bonded labour conditions with family in brick kilns, and many employed in the fields during the sowing or harvesting season where they compete with cheaper labour from Bihar. The exception is Christians who have risen to high positions in academics, the military, and the Church, with one becoming a CNI bishop some years ago.
Punjab's Christian population is around 300,000, about 1.2% of the state population, mostly concentrated in Amritsar and villages in west Punjab. The government is Akali-BJP coalition elected in February 2007.
Fact Finding Team Composition
The fact finding team included: Dr. John Dayal; Rev. Madhu Chandra, aicc Regional Secretary, Delhi; M. Adeeb, Human Rights Law Network lawyer; and Mr. Marang Hansda, aicc assistant. They visited Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, and Gurdaspur districts, including villages deep in the rural hinterland from 22 to 25 February 2010, and Chandigarh.
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Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 02.03.10
JNU faculty is sharply divided over quota - The Hindu
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/02/stories/2010030257520200.htm
Dalits seek removal of encroachment - The Hindu
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/02/stories/2010030251840300.htm
The Hindu
JNU faculty is sharply divided over quota
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/02/stories/2010030257520200.htm
Urvashi Sarkar
'The new move is not legally binding on JNU'
Some former V-Cs also against the proposal
NEW DELHI: After Jawaharlal Nehru University here advertised 149 faculty positions in mid-2009, reserving large number of positions at the level of Associate Professor and Professor for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Physically Handicapped candidates and at the Associate Professor level for the Other Backward Classes, opinion has been divided on the campus.
Professor Aditya Mukherjee of the JNU Centre for Historical Studies says: "JNU usually reserves faculty positions for SC, ST and PH candidates only at the entry point at the Assistant Professor level. There was no reservation for (Other Backward Classes) faculty at any level."
"The new move aims to introduce reservations at the level of Associate Professor and Professor for SC and ST and at Assistant Professor level for OBC," he adds.
The new step was not legally binding on JNU and was taken by the Executive Council (EX) without consulting the Academic Council (AC), Dr. Mukherjee claims.
The EC approved of the new move in 2007. After the advertisements appeared in 2009, the AC demanded in November that the EC reconsider its decision and the matter be thoroughly discussed at the centre and school levels and the AC.
On January 12, the EC is believed to have admitted to a procedural lapse and said the matter would be referred back to the AC following which it would be reverted to the EC.
Says Dr. Mukherjee: "The new move was based on University Grants Commission guidelines which are not binding on JNU. There is no law which necessitates the proposed reservations."
A 2005 HRD Ministry directive to the UGC states: "…in exercise of the powers vested under Section 20(1) of the UGC Act, 1956 the Government hereby directs the UGC to ensure effective implementation the reservation policy in the central universities and those of (sic) institutions Deemed to be universities receiving aid from the public funds except in minority institutions under Article 30(1) of the Constitution."
It has been alleged that UGC added a section on "Coverage and Applicability" which states "Reservation is applicable to all teaching posts such as the posts of Lecturers, Readers and Professors…and to all posts of non-teaching staff …" and is believed to have passed it off as a MHRD directive.
Dr. Mukherjee says: "Of the positions at the IITs, 30 per cent are vacant in the general category. The Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore has half its positions vacant in the general category. If in the general category qualified people are not available, it will be difficult to find people if choice is reserved to the reserved categories. We are restricting our criteria in the search for the best talent. JNU was founded on the pillars of excellence and equity. It has been providing quality education to people from socio-economically unprivileged backgrounds."Also because the roster system was followed, certain posts became automatically reserved for SC, ST or PH and are not interchangeable. Thus there was often a mismatch between the job profile and the category of person it was reserved for.
Some former vice-chancellors and Emeritus professors have also spoken out against the proposed reservations.
On the issue of supporting reservations, Assistant Professor Kaushal Kumar from the Centre of Japanese, Korean and North East Asian studies says: "Constitutional rights and social justice which is due should be given to unprivileged individuals for overall development of India."
Prof. Vivek Kumar of the JNU Centre for Study of Social Systems says: "Reservation for Professor and Associate Professor is an entry point in JNU and not for promotion. JNU should be more open in order to inclusive. Just a few who have the benefit of cultural capital and pedigree should not benefit."
Supporters of reservations say the January 12 EC meeting minutes had not been approved and don't have the consent of all the members.
Also, JNU is not the only institute to implements reservations at the Professor and Associate Professor level.
The Hindu
Dalits seek removal of encroachment
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/02/stories/2010030251840300.htm
Staff Reporter
TIRUNELVELI: A group of Dalits from Chiththaarchathram village under Gangaikondan police station limits submitted a petition to District Collector M. Jayaraman on Monday seeking action against a family which has allegedly encroached upon their cremation ground.
The petitioners, led by P. Ananthan, alleged that a caste Hindu couple of Paruththikulam were preventing them from removing the thorny bushes grown abundantly on the cremation ground even after a complaint was registered at Gangaikondan police station in this connection.
"The police which initially allowed us to cut the bushes are now preventing us from removing the roots following a false complaint made by the encroacher, who did not even allow the government officials to carry out development works in the cremation ground under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme," Mr. Ananthan alleged.
--
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
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Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre- PMARC has been initiated with the support from group of senior journalists, social activists, academics and intellectuals from Dalit and civil society to advocate and facilitate Dalits issues in the mainstream media. To create proper & adequate space with the Dalit perspective in the mainstream media national/ International on Dalit issues is primary objective of the PMARC.
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