Commission clears police, govt in India’s anti-Christian violence

(January 28, 2011) A government commission that investigated anti-Christian violence in southern India’s Karnataka state on Friday cleared the police and the state government of any violence. The state had appointed the one-man commission in 2008 after mobs attacked Christians and Church institutions. B.K. Somashekhara, a former judge who conducted the investigation, said the government and its police were not responsible for the violence. The commission submitted its final report to state Chief Minister B. S. Yeddyyurappa in Bangalore, the state capital. It said “misguided fundamentalist miscreants of defined or undefined groups or organizations against Christians and Christianity” indulged in the attacks “mistakenly” presuming that the ruling party would protect them. Church and secular groups had blamed Hindu radicals for the attacks and alleged the state’s pro-Hindu government tacitly supported them. Sajan George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), has rejected the report’s findings, calling them biased, and an attempt to whitewash the government’s name. According to the GCIC, 133 anti-Christian attacks have been recorded in Karnataka in the past two years, 72 alone in 2009. At least 200 Christians, mostly young men and women, have been charged with making false accusations in connection with the 2008 unrest. By contrast, Hindu extremists have enjoyed impunity. In some cases, charges against them have been dismissed.