Herald, Panjim, 3 September 2008 Editorial Crocodile tears? Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik says recurring communal violence has tarnished the image of his state. In an interview with Indian Express, Patnaik yesterday said: "The attack on the ashram, as well as what happened thereafter, I repeat, what happened after that, both are deplorable. Those who indulged in these savage acts… stern action will be certainly taken against them." These are fine words, but why aren't they backed by action? Why has an avowedly secular politician become a prisoner of his coalition partner, the BJP? Why is his government preventing political leaders and human rights activists from entering Kandhamal? He has even ruled out a CBI probe into Swami Laxmanananda's murder, proposed not only by the Church, but also by Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, saying the judicial inquiry he has ordered is "adequate", though we all know it will take years to reach a verdict. Orissa needs more central forces, Patnaik says. But the state already has enough. Seven companies were stationed in Orissa as reserve. Subsequently, 10 companies of the CRPF were pulled out from Jharkhand and Bihar, and sent there. Another six companies of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) stationed in Hyderabad and Jamshedpur were subsequently diverted to Orissa. The central paramilitary presence in Orissa stands at 33 companies, or five-and-a-half battalions. According to The Economic Times, it is almost half of the number deployed in Chhattisgarh to fight the Naxalites! The real problem, according to Archbishop of Cuttack Raphael Cheenath, who filed a writ before the Supreme Court yesterday demanding its intervention, is that they are all being deployed in district towns and not being sent to the remote areas, where armed gangs of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) goons are running amok. On Monday, the Orissa Government admitted that over 558 houses and 17 places of worship had been burnt in the riots. Chief Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy said that the situation was 'under control'. But even as he spoke, VHP mobs burnt down at least 20 houses of Christians, and destroyed a church, a convent and two hostels, apart from 10 prayer halls. Police recovered three bodies in Kandhamal on Monday. Claiming that the situation had "substantially improved", authorities suspended the curfew from 6 am to 6 pm yesterday. But, according to The Hindustan Times, at least 80 houses were torched in fresh arson in villages of the Tikabali and Sarangada areas of Kandhamal district between noon on Monday and Tuesday afternoon. Yesterday, for the very first time since the violence broke out, Secretaries to the government visited Kandhamal district to see the situation. Patnaik visited Kandhamal just a day earlier. And Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil will be visiting Orissa today. That all these 'honourable men' could not get moving earlier, exposes the real level of their concern about the situation. Worst of all, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) has said the Church "is shocked" to learn that the Christians are "forced to become Hindus and destroy their own Churches, in which they have been worshipping so long." To force people to 're-convert' to Hinduism and then tear down or burn their places of worship is an act of medieval savagery. And what should one say about organisations like the Hindu Janajagriti Samiti, which attacked the Church for keeping its educational institutions closed on 29 August in protest against the slaughter. Are we to interpret it as their support for these acts of savagery? Can India progress with primitive thinking like this?
-- Question everything -- Karl Marx