Antonia, stop using 'Gandhi' surname, don't insult the Mahatma

Forwarded message from S. Kalyanaraman

Antonia, stop using 'Gandhi' surname, don't insult the Mahatma

Friday, August 11, 2006

http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s06080021.htm

August 5, 2006

Sonia Gandhi opposes Anti Conversion Bills

Christians demand for review of development status,
conversions

News release for Dalit Freedom Network in association with
OM India/A.I.C.C./SC-ST Federations

New Delhi, India (ANS) -- The Indian Congress President,
Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, has voiced her party's strong opposition
or anti conversion laws, called Freedom of religion Bills,
being enacted by several BJP ruled states.

In a signed letter to Dr John Dayal, a member of the
National Integration Council and President of the All India
Catholic Union, Mrs. Gandhi said "The Congress Party's
views on this are well known. These are enactments passed
by the State legislatures where the Congress is in
Opposition. The Congress Party has opposed this strongly in
the assembly and through demonstrations." Dr. Dayal
previously submitted a letter to Mrs. Ghandi signed by
prominent civil and religious leaders from across India.

The letter comes even as several Christian leaders are
meeting with the National Commission for Minorities to
raise this and other issues. They are calling for a
comprehensive review of the social, economic and political
situation of the Christian Minorities in India. They are
also asking for an official statement from every State
detailing any instances of forcible conversions. BJP-ruled
state governments have been using alleged "forced
conversions" as an excuse to pass restrictive anti-
conversion legislation targeting Christian and Muslim
activity.

Dalit Freedom Network partners Rev. Madhu Chandra, Albert
Lael, Sam Paul, Jose MD, and Dr John Dayal along with Delhi
Archbishop Vincent Concessao and Church of North India
General Secretary Rev Enos Das Pradhan as well as several
other prominent Christian leaders met with Chairman Hamid
Ansari and vice Chairman PM Pinto from the National
Commission for Minorities.

The community leaders reminded the Commission "its first
and main allegiance was to the Constitution of India and is
obliged to monitor the Government of India and its policies
and practices, as those of the State governments, to ensure
that at no time do religious minorities feel they live in
an unjust system, or that Government and its apparatus is
deaf to their pain. We demand nothing more, and nothing
less, than what is our right as Citizens of a free India."

The harassment or erosion of rights of even the smallest
and most vulnerable group is an erosion of the rights of
the entire Minority community guaranteed under the
Constitution. The Commission must therefore communicate a
comprehensive picture of the social, economic, religious
and other problems faced by the Christian community in the
country -- everything from issues relating to Visas and
FCRA, physical violence, and hate campaigns.

A complete copy of the Charter of Requests to the
Government of India given by the Christian delegation is
available from the DFN by request. Contact them at 5350 S.
Roslyn., Suite 200, Greenwood Village, CO 80111 USA. Phone:
303-221-1333 Toll Free: 866-921-1333.

Their website is: www.dalitnetwork.org

Sister Sonia, he wanted a total ban on conversions!

By S, Gurumurthy

"The Congress party's views on this are well known," Sonia
says. 'This' means laws banning forcible religious
conversions. She goes on: "They are enactments passed by
state legislatures where the Congress is in opposition."
She adds, "The Congress party has opposed (them) strongly
in the assembly and through demonstrations." She made these
profound remarks in a letter she wrote to Dr John Dayal.
Who is he? He has a respectable visiting card, as member of
the National Integration Council. But he has other visiting
cards too like President of All India Catholic Union,
Secretary General of All India Christian Council, President
of United Christian Action, and Member of Justice and Peace
commission Archdiocese of Delhi.

But these cards do not exhaust his definition. In the
assessment of a responsible Christian scholar, PN Benjamin,
who runs the Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue,
"John Dayal opens his mouth and wields his pen only to spew
venom on the Hindu community." This completes his profile.
He had written to Sonia complaining about the laws banning
religious conversions in different states. To which she
replied implying that the BJP is the author of anti-
conversion laws.

But is that -- that is, it is the BJP, not the Congress,
which passed the anti-conversion laws and the Congress had
actually opposed them -- a fact? Only a novice in political
history post freedom would say something like what Sonia
says. On the contrary, it was the Congress Party, which had
still some traces of the Mahatma Gandhi left in it, that
had passed the anti-conversion laws.

That Congress, which still had some respect for the
Mahatma, took his words on religious conversions seriously.
Mahatma Gandhi had written extensively against conversions
by Christians. He wrote, "I hold that proselytisation under
the cloak of human work is unhealthy to say the least."
This was in Young India on April 23, 1931. Later, he went
one step further and wrote, "If I had the power to
legislate, I should stop all proselytisation work" (Young
India 5.11.1935). He told the missionaries, "He is ashamed
of them" (Young India 8.8.1925), disputed their claim that
theirs "is the only true religion" (Harijan 3.6.1937),
warned that "conversion should not mean denationalisation"
(8.8.1925), and pointed out that it means just that, as
many converts are "ashamed of their birth" and of their
ancestry (20.8.1925).

Gandhiji's ideas were still influencing the Congress when
the Madhya Pradesh government constituted the Neogi
Committee to study missionary activities in tribal areas.
This was in 1954. S.K George, 'a devout Christian and a
nationalist belonging to the oldest church in India -the
Syrian Christian Church' was a member of the Committee. The
Committee exposed the massive, fraudulent conversions of
tribal people and recommended that a law be enacted to ban
such fraudulent practices. The MP government, led by the
Congress Party, enacted the Neogi-recommended law banning
conversions in the year 1968. The Orissa government, again
a Congress-led government, did so even earlier in 1967. And
Arunachal Pradesh under the central rule of the government
headed by another Gandhi, unrelated to the Mahatma, Indira
Gandhi, also passed a similar law.

This is the origin and history of anti-conversion laws in
India. So these laws owe their origin in Mahatma Gandhi's
wish. He actually wanted a ban on all religious
conversions. These laws fall far short of his wish. But she
would not know that Gandhiji wanted a total, not partial,
ban on conversions. She would not know that it was the
Congress in which Gandhi's views were respected which
passed these laws first. One can also dismiss her ignorance
of the history of a country she is totally unfamiliar as
natural. But the tragedy is that, by design, not by
accident, this nation itself has kept its people and polity
so ignorant of the views of that Gandhi that many today
think that this Gandhi's views are also that Gandhi's
views!

His statues in lakhs are all over the country from small
village panchayat offices to Parliament. Roads running to
hundreds of thousands of miles bear his name in every small
town. His name is alive through his statues and roads but
his ideas are nowhere. That is why the later Gandhis saw
the political gain in appropriating his name but rejecting
his ideas. Just like the name Gandhi is all over but his
ideas are nowhere, the name Congress is all over but
Gandhi's ideas are nowhere in the Congress. So, while
Mahatma Gandhi had commended a ban on conversions, the
Congress led by Sonia Gandhi is opposing even a ban on
fraudulent conversions. The difference between the two
Congresses is as much as the difference between the two
Gandhis -- today's Sonia Gandhi and yesterday's Mahatma
Gandhi.

Comment: gurumurthy@epmltd.com

http://www.newindpress.com/Column.asp?ID=IEH20020904011659&P=old

End of forwarded message from S. Kalyanaraman

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