Madhya Pradesh, Christian school under protection from Hindu threat

(July 14, 2011) The Christian Institute St. Jude Khargone in the Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh is under police protection, after serious threats from the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Bishops' Conference of Madhya Pradesh has sent a petition to the chief minister of the State, Tuesday, to demand a meeting but it has not taken place. In the complaint, they also called for the concrete implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act. The case of St. Jude High School, Fr Anand Muttungal, the spokesman for the bishops' conference said is the latest in a series with three other similar cases that took place in Madhya Pradesh since the beginning of June. Some activists from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the youth wing of BJP wanted to force the school to admit a boy to the fifth level, despite the fact that the dean Fr. John Victor had already explained to them that there was no availability for that class. So, since July 2 last, the Hindu radicals have carried out threats and intimidation. Only the intervention of the police dispersed the activists, but the institute is still under protection. In his petition Fr Muttungal referred to violations of constitutional guarantees for minorities and their institutions, given in Articles 29 and 30 of the law.