BREAKING NEWS
12/18/07 India (International Christian Concern) - Hindu extremist groups openly campaigned for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the run up to the elections to the state legislature in the western state of Gujarat, indicating that they work in tandem to persecute religious minorities, including Christians.
According to media reports, groups associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent organization of numerous Hindu extremist groups and the chief persecutor of Christians in India, sought votes for the BJP chief minister, Narendra Modi, to strengthen "Hindu forces" in the state. Voting for the 182-member assembly in Gujarat ended on December 16.
For instance, an elusive but overtly militant group, "Hindu Brotherhood - Kashmiri Hindu Liberation Army" (HB-KHLA), appealed for votes saying Modi's victory could be a means to "Hinduize politics and militarize Hindus."
"Don't let your children ask you, 'When you had a chance, why did you not establish Hindutva....because of you, we are at the mercy of radicals (read Muslims and Christians),'" said an email message sent en masse through a Google group by the HB-KHLA. ICC has a copy of the email.
The term "Hindutva," a Hindu nationalistic ideology, was coined by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (popularly known as Veer Savarkar) in 1923 through a pamphlet "Hindutva: Who is a Hindu."
According to Hindutva, India belongs to the Hindu majority community, and religious minorities, mainly Christians and Muslims, are outsiders.
"We are still slaves of Christian missionaries and Islamic radicals and vote for hungry pseudo-secular political leaders (of the opposition Congress party). Your vote (to the BJP) will kill all of them."
As a solution to the "Muslim and Christian problems (read terrorism and conversions)," the HB-KHLA suggests: "We Hindus should militarise and industrialize ourselves… In the army, navy and air force, Hindus should have the majority. In fact, people with double faiths should not be allowed to enter the Indian military. This is the only way to keep ourselves safe."
According to its charter, India needs to establish "a single party militarized government based on the divine laws of Hindu Dharma (religion), and Hindutva ideology."
The HB-KHLA website, http://www.hindurashtra.org , carries no contact details but an email identity.
Similarly, Ashok Singhal, the chief of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP) told the media that his organization did not want the "model state" to fall into the hands of a party run by a "Christian foreigner" (referring to Congress party president Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, a Roman Catholic by birth).
On November 30, The Telegraph newspaper reported Singhal as saying that it was a myth that Hindu outfits would oppose the BJP in Gujarat and allow power to slip into the hands of a "foreigner."
"The BJP is the symbol of Hindu forces," he said.
The assurance by the VHP came against the backdrop of divisions within the BJP and its tensions with groups linked to the RSS, including the VHP.
The newspaper said the top BJP leadership had held several meetings with RSS leaders to turn them around, "aware that winning an election without the Sangh's cadres might not be easy."
In response, the VHP held election campaigns for the BJP in Dangs district. "We are going to help the BJP 110 per cent. We need them. The BJP helps us in organizing tribals," admitted Surji Gavit, a VHP worker, while talking to the NDTV news channel on December 5.
The Gujarat district of Dangs is of particular interest to the VHP because it is dominated by tribal people where close to 30 percent of the population is estimated to be Christian. However, at the state-level, Christians comprise less than one percent of the total population, which is more than 50 million.
Dangs is infamous for a spate of anti-Christian violence from December 25, 1998 to January 3, 1999. The attacks followed the distribution of pamphlets against Christians and a massive rally where provocative speeches were made against Christian tribal peoples by the Hindu Jagran Manch (Forum for Revival of Hindus, or HJM), another RSS-related group.
The BJP administration was warned by Christians of tensions due to the rally, but the authorities allegedly refused to take any preventive measures. Nor did authorities do anything to protect Christians or punish the guilty.
According to analysts, the RSS cadre helps the BJP, its political wing, to win elections by raising issues that divide communities along religious lines. Having come to power, the BJP in turn helps the RSS cadre to indulge in violence with impunity.
Gujarat is seen as the BJP's "laboratory of Hindutva" by rights activists.
Weekly magazine Tehelka recently released the results of a sting operation indicating the involvement of Modi and his BJP colleagues in the anti-Muslim carnage in February and March 2002.
The violence, in which at least 2,000 people, mainly Muslims, were killed, took place as a reaction to an incident where a train carrying Hindu activists was allegedly torched, killing 59 people in Gujarat's Godhra town on February 27, 2002. Hindu groups blamed a Muslim mob for the fire.
Recently, the RSS organized a massive anti-Christian rally in Dangs from February 11 to 13, 2006.
The U.S. in March 2005 had denied Modi a diplomatic visa and also revoked his tourist/business visa as per a section of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act that prohibits anybody who was "responsible for, or directly carried out, at any time, particularly severe violations of religious freedom" from entering that country. Modi wanted to visit the U.S. for a meeting organised by the Association of Indian-Americans of North America.
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