By Sujata Jena
Bhubaneswar, Sept 13, 2020: Kandhamal never again, never anywhere, asserted a webinar organized by the National Solidarity Forum (NSF) amid rising hate crimes in India.
Kandhamal, a district in the eastern Indians state of Odisha, in 2008 witnessed unprecedented anti-Christian violence that claimed more than 100 lives and rendered 56,000 homeless.
“For us, the diabolic attacks on Christians were much beyond a matter of shock, shame, pain and grief. Kandhamal never again, never anywhere,” said veteran journalist and human rights activist John Dayal, an NSF member who moderated the September 12 webinar.
More than 300 civil society groups, religious leaders, lawyers, writers, journalists including priests, nuns across India and abroad, joined the webinar on reclaiming democracy and defending diversity in India.
The online seminar aimed to generate solidarity for those struggling for justice. It wanted to keep the memories of Kandhamal alive so that such violence does not happen again in history, the organizers said.
“The webinar puts the Kandhamal violence in the context of rising hate crimes in the country. It is not Christian minority alone, but other vulnerable groups bear the brunt of hate crimes,” says a press note from the webinar organizers.
The press note quoted Amnesty International India that documented 721 incidents of hate crime between 2015 and 2018. In 2018, it tracked 218 hate crimes, 142 of them against Dalits, 50 against Muslims, 40 against women, and eight each against Christians, Adivasi and transgenders.
Supreme Court retired Judge Justice V Gopala Gowda, in his keynote address said, “Democracy is the basic structure of the constitution of India. The opening lines of the Preamble “We, the people of India” portrays the philosophy and significant of the democratic spirit involved in the Constitution.”
He added, “I am a Hindu. Many people gathered here are from different religions. I love all the people from a different religion. That is the spirit of democracy. That is the spirit of the Constitution.”
He further explained that there is no majority and minority religion. May be the population of a particular religion is more or less. That does not mean power is vested in a majority religion, class or ethnics, he added.
Every citizen of this country has equal power. Everyone should be treated equally and given the liberty of thought, expressions and beliefs.
T Thirumavalavan, a Member of Parliament, said the ruling party’s ‘one nation, one culture, one language, one education’ policy is against diversity and pluralism. “It is a need of the hour for all democracy citizens to come together irrespective of caste, gender, religion, ethnicity and fight against the monopoly of the present government.”
Colin Gonsalves, a Supreme Court lawyer and founder of Human Rights Law Network, pointed out that the Kandhamal violence had recorded 3,232 complaints, but only 827 First Information Reports were registered. Among them, only 518 cases were charge sheeted and the rest were dismissed as false reports. Among the 518 cases, the courts disposed 247 cases. The rest are pending before the sessions and magistrate’s courts.
According to a study conducted by Supreme Court Advocate Vrinda Grover and Law professor Saumya Uma, the conviction rate is as low as 5.13 percent of the chargesheeted cases.
“We are on a desperate search for five or six lawyers from Kandhamal who can work full time for next 2-3 years,” Colin said.
Jesuit Father Marianus Kujur, director of Ranchi’s Xavier Institute of Social Service, said India has two democracies—one for the rich and the other for the poor. “The story of the Indian democracy at the moment is a story of the hopes belied, and the dreams shattered,” he said.
Observing that the Adivasi community has been polarized by the power wielders for their vested interests, the Jesuit called for interventions and mutual solidarity from civil society, judicial, media, people’s movements, collaboration, networking. “And have hope and never give up,” he added.
The webinar provided a forum to plan future action to get justice for the victims of the Kandhamal pogrom and all the victims of religious persecution in India.
The meeting encouraged fostering alliance with other religions, ethnic and minorities and network with secular human rights and democracy groups at local, national, regional and global levels.
NSF leader Ram Puniyani stressed the need to struggle for democratic society at multiple levels. “We have to counter the violence collectively and especially build more alliances among minority leaderships and communities to jointly counter attacks on our secular democracy,” said Puniyani as a way forward for the forum.
More than 70 organizations, under the NSF banner, had undertaken various programs soon after the Kandhamal pogrom. A People’s Tribunal was held in Delhi in 2010, headed by A P Shah, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court.