Christian leaders meet Naveen Patnaik

(November 11, 2008) A Christian delegation in Indiaìs violence-hit Orissa State met state chief minister Naveen Patnaik alleging that Hindu fanatic groups have been trying to wipe out Christianity from the state. The delegation led by Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack—Bhubaneshwar also met the press soon after their Monday morning meeting with Patnaik at the State Secretariat. The delegation members said peace still eludes Kandhamal district, which was focus of the seven week long violence that began Aug. 24 and killed some 60 people and displaced 50,000. Majority of the displaced are living in relief camps. Hindu fanatic groups who engineered the anti-Christian violence have been trying to name it as ethnic conflict “between the tribal and Dalit Christians." The victims are all Christians and they are targeted even now in Kandhamal. Christians are frightened to leave the camps to their village since they want live and die as Christians. Forcible conversions of Christians are continuing. Those who return have to become Hindus, at least outwardly. Hindu flags and images should be displayed their houses, said the delegation. The delegation also dismissed as wrong the government claim that people in the relief camps were going back to their villages as situation in the villages have become normal. In a memorandum to Patnaik they said Christians leaving the relief camps in Kandhamal are migrating relief camps in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur and other places. They are also settling down in rented houses and in the homes of their relatives and friends outside Kandhamal. A good number of Christians have also migrated to Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Gujarat, they added.