(August 23, 2010) A group of social activists on Sunday opened an exhibition on Orissa
riot in New Delhi showing the miseries victims suffer even two years after the anti-Christian
violence. Bollywood Lyricist Javed Akhtar, opened the exhibition, saying the 2008
Hindu radical violence in the tribal-dominated Kandhamal district was “matter of shame”
for the nation. Akhtar later told media while all Indians take pride in the values
of nation’s secular values, sectarian violence such as Orissa riots continue to occur,
challenging the “our democracy and our ideal of secularism.” The scene of the exhibition
conveys the uncertainties of the lives of the victims of radical violence that began
Aug. 24, 2008, a day after Hindu leader Laxmanananda Saraswati was killed. Hundreds
of victims of the seven-week long violence continue to live in relief camps, unable
to return to their villages. Exhibition structures made of bamboo look like small
huts on which some 80 photographs and selected paintings are displayed. The first
visual of the exhibition is an actual bamboo hut with burnt jute hanging on from its
walls. Inside it are actual items collected from Kandhamal—a broken crucifix, burnt
cloth, bible and household items. The exhibition, conceptualized and designed by social
activist Shabnam Hashmi, will remain open till August 24. National Solidarity Forum,
an alliance of non-governmental organizations, supports it. Some Christian leaders
such as John Dayal saw positive signs in secular groups in the country taking initiative
to observe the anniversary of the riots, not seeing the sectarian violence as an issue
of Christians.