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Christians flay Gujarat government's threat to stop grants-in-aid to schools

Christian leaders today criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Gujarat government for threatening to stop grants-in-aid to the educational institutions run by their organisations and declared their resolve to peacefully protest against any atrocities against the minorities.

Addressing an impressive rally in Ahmedabad, Fr Francis Parmar, principal of St Xavier's College, Ahmedabad, said the state government should not threaten the Christian organisations and remember that wards of most political leaders and ministers were students of these institutions. "We do not need power as we have enough of it," he said, adding the Christians wanted to promote democratic norms and human values.

Some other leaders, who also addressed the rally, said Christians did not believe in making others suffer and instead, preferred to suffer themselves. They regretted that while universities remained closed for about a month and disturbed the academic calendar this year due to teachers' strike, the Gujarat government had threatened the Christian educational institutions for going on strike just for one day.

The rally also observed one-minute silence to pay tributes to the BJP minister, Maganbhai Kasundra, who passed away last night.

Similar rallies were taken out at some other places in Gujarat.

The Christians observed the day as a day of prayer and fasting and all schools, colleges and other institutions run or managed by their organisations remained closed. Hospitals and other essential services, however, remained open but Christian employees wore black badges or ribbon to mark their protest. Christian government employees, however, largely remained away in view of the state government's warning.

All the churches remained open from 6 am to 10 am for special prayers. Public prayers were also offered and the public meeting held at the Kankaria football ground after a three-hour rally ended with the singing of national anthem.

The United Christian Forum for Human Rights, New Delhi, the umbrella body which organised the nation-wide protest day today, asked the Christians by to participate in the rally in black or white clothes to demonstrate their peaceful protest.

As a result of this directive, a large number of participants were seen attired either in black or white and wore black badges, crowns or ribbons. At the end of the rally, Christian leaders submitted memoranda in support of their demands to the authorities.

The protest day was organised against what the Christians described as ''violation of human rights'' which, they said, should be stopped immediately in order to preserve the secular traditions of the country. The rally and the protest day were the culmination of the six-day-long agitation which began on November 29, observed as a day of ''awareness and preparation''.

In Baroda, the community took out an impressive peaceful rally today as mark of their protest against the alleged atrocities faced by minorities.

The rally, which began from Rosary School church, was marked by the presence of a large number of school students of Christian institutions, parents, teachers and others, and passed through different roads with heavy police bandobast. It reached the collector's office and handed over a memorandum to the collector, A G Mukim.

In neighbouring Maharashtra, a meeting of Christians of all denominations in Aurangabad, strongly condemned the atrocities on Christians in various parts of the country.

Fr Peter Amolik and Fr Thomas Shingare addressed the gatherings after a mass prayer. Incidents of beating and murdering of Christian priests, rape of nuns and burning of the Bible were narrated by the speakers saying that such type of incidents were being reported from West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar and other parts of the country, creating concern among the community members.

The protest against the atrocities on community members has been registered following the directives from the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, they added.

In Hyderabad, the protest evoked a mixed response, with some Christian schools functioning, while others remained closed.

Earlier, the managements of Christian schools had announced closure of the schools today. However, the Archbhishop of Hyderabad, S Arulappa, had yesterday stated that all Catholic educational institutions would function as usual.

Schools run by the church functioned. However, the educational institutions being managed by the missionaries, remained closed.

The All India United Christians Movement for Equal Rights and the Catholic Action Organisation held public prayers and public meetings. A fast was also observed as part of the protest.

In Bombay, the Christian community observed the national protest day by praying, observing fast, closing down missionary schools for the day, holding rallies and public meetings to protest against the recent spate of atrocities against the community.

Most of the Christians in the city today observed fast in response to an appeal by the Archbishop of Bombay, Ivan Dias. Majority of the convent schools, colleges and other Christian institutions remain closed. The only exception was the hospitals and essential services whose employees demonstrated their protest by wearing black badges.

To mark the protest, lights were switched off at Gloria Church at Byculla in central Bombay and people marched with candles. Fr Francis D'Britto, president of the Harit Vasai Suraksha Samiti said, ''The attack on Christians is an attack on Indian culture and every Indian should have protested. Atrocities on this community has increased during the last two years,'' he added.

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