India: Protestant leader: Hindu attacks against schools and teachers Christians "indecents"

Mumbai - "The wave of attacks against Christian schools and teachers should be condemned in the strongest terms. It is an indecent violation of human rights and minority rights” says Sajan K George, President of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC). He denounces the accusations by Hindu activists of 'Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (Abvp) against two Christian institutions, in Chhattisgarh and Karnataka. The Abvp is a student organization affiliated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ultranationalist party leadership of the two States that supports groups belonging to the extremist Hindu movement Sangh Parivar like Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad ( VHP) or the Bajrang Dal, often responsible for violence against Dalits and Christians.

In Korba (Chhattisgarh), a student of Nirmala Convent School run by the Franciscans of the Immaculate, tried to practice the "Saraswati Pooja", a ritual dedicated to the Hindu goddess of knowledge Saraswati. Faced with the refusal of Sister Mary Ajaya, the school principal, the Abvp activists held a rally to demand her arrest, accusing her of having "desecrated" the objects used by the young woman for the ritual.

In Anekal (Karnataka), 100 Abvp militants created unrest in St Joseph's PU College, demanding the arrest of the president, Jesuit Fr. Melwin Mendonca S.J.

"The scandalous accusations made by these activists – says Sajan George - reflect the interests of the BJP and the protection they enjoy. These attacks on Christian institutions show a very dangerous trend: through an anti-Christian propaganda, these ultra-nationalists are poisoning the minds of impressionable students, many of whom are Hindus. This risks creating disharmony within the whole community. "