Justice Saldanha alerts President, Ms. Patel to rising communalism in state

Justice Saldanha alerts President, Ms. Patel to rising communalism in state

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, May 9: The former Karnataka High Court Judge Justice M F Saldanha and the Catholic-Christian Secular Forum General Secretary Joseph Dias met President of India Pratibha Patil and Vice-president Hamid Ansari recently and submitted the Freedom of Faith report (2007-2011) on Concerns of Indian Christians and Persecution by Communalists in the Secular Indian State.

Informing the same to the media persons, Justice M F Saldanha said both the President and the Vice-president have appreciated the report and have shown deep concern over the Anti-Christian attacks taking place in Karnataka and promised to put an ebd to them.







Speaking about the meeting, Justice Saldanha said that the president expressed her concerns regarding the incidents in Orissa and Karnataka and the rising incidents of violence against Christians in states such as Gujarath, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, and so on. He said that the president expressed her appreciation and approval of his report, which revealed the identity of the forces responsible for the attacks against minority communities in Karnataka. He said that the president was shocked when she saw the CSF reports, which reveal that Christians are being persecuted almost every day for the past 4 years. He reported that the president said that the minorities need to be assured that India is a secular country that bestows freedom of faith for all her citizens.

He also said that Vice President Ansari promised to visit Karnataka and expressed his gratefulness for single-handedly opposing the communal forces that are targeting Christians and other minority communities across the state. He also said that Governor Bharadwaj was regularly briefing him on the situation in Karnataka, the deteriorating law and order situation in which certain forces are permitted to freely target respectable citizens.

The report by Justice Saldanha and Joseph Dias highlights various aspects leading to attacks on Christians including rise of militant communalism, weakened secular parties, anti-conversion and freedom of religion laws and false cases among others.

Saldanha said the report has put forth two important recommendations including the proportionate representation of Christians in Public Affairs and the launching of a Sachar-type Committee to study the state of affair of Christians. 

 

Mr. Saldanha said that Mr. Ansari agreed with him that uniting Christians and interacting with secular agencies was the only way out of this situation.

Jospeh Dias who was present at the meet said the Christians are targeted by majority community for no reason. Christians are not the retaliating types like other communities.

Saffronisation of education, growing trend of communalism among the women are posing threat to the society, he said.