Manmohan Singh defends before EU India’s secular nature

(September 30, 2008) Dismissing European Union’s fears that India is increasingly becoming intolerant toward Christians, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stressed India’s secular credentials. Singh, who reached Marseilles on Monday for the India specific EU meting on Monday, addressed a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and president of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso. In the wake of attack on Christians in Karnataka and Orissa, EU leaders have expressed “serious concerns” over "massacres" of Christians in India. The Orissa violence that started Aug. 24 continues with Hindu radical burning Christian houses, convents and churches, which have killed some 40 people. In the continuing violence, a convent of Missionaries of Charity and there churches were destroyed. But Singh said the attacks have been "sporadic.” He also stressed that he and his party leaders had condemned these incidents as "acts of national shame". Besides Orissa, suspected Hindu activists have also ransacked several churches during the last couple of weeks in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh and Kerala. Singh said the central government paramilitary forces to state governments to restore order and prevent attacks on Christians, Singh said. EU chair and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he had conveyed the EU's "serious concerns" over "massacres" of Christians in India to Singh. The French president underlined that the Indian prime minister had already condemned the attacks on Christians in India. "We were impressed by the clarity with which the prime minister has condemned these attacks," said Barroso, the president of the EU Commission.
In India an official of the European Union has expressed hope that New Delhi would arrest the perpetrators anti-Christian violence in Orissa and other parts of India soon. European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner said “there is widely felt concern in Europe over the scale of the violence and the targeting of vulnerable part of the population.” But “we are confident that Indian authorities will bring the perpetrators to justice and protect the vulnerable," he said.