Karnataka, India - A judicial commission probing attacks on the church in Karnataka has laid the blame for the violence at the door of the leaders of the victim community and their missionary activities. The Justice BK Someshekara commission, which submitted its report to Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa on Friday, gave a clean chit to the BJP and its affiliate organisations, and said the violence was a cause of the distribution of some “material” derogatory to the Hindus and their conversion to Christianity.
This observation is significant in view of the fact that when Christian nuns were raped in MP in 1998-99, the NDA government, led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said there should be a debate on “conversions”. Recently, while upholding the life term for the killers of Graham Staines, a Supreme Court bench had said the murderers wanted to teach the deceased "a lesson" for his proselytising activities. However, the remark was expunged.
The commission said: “There is no basis to the apprehension of Christian petitioners that the politicians, BJP, mainstream Sangh Parivar and state government, directly or indirectly, are involved in the attacks.” It also denied any collusion between the administration and the attackers, as alleged by various Christian groups.
“The attacks (were) indulged in by misguided fundamentalist miscreants of defined or undefined groups or organisations against Christians and Christianity who have mistakenly presumed that they (miscreants) would be protected by the party in power with their policies at the relevant time,” it added.
The panel received 1,500 petitions and examined more than 800 people.
The commission was set up following an uproar over the attacks in Mangalore, Udupi, Chikamangalur, Kolar, Chikaballapur, Bellary and Davangere districts in September 2008.
However, the panel was critical of the authorities for not treating the Christians protesting the attacks sympathetically. It said a police station for dealing with religious issues should be constituted in every district.
Justice BK Someshekara is a retired judge of the Karnataka high court.