| [Editor's Note :
Note the adjectives used to characterize the Hindus and their organizations in this AFP
news item, highlighted by CAPS] NEW DELHI,
Oct 18 (AFP) - India's dominant communist party Monday denounced anti-Christian propaganda
orchestrated by Hindu FANATICS ahead of a visit early next month by the Pope. The
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) said the country's most powerful Hindu revivalist
group, the RSS, was responsible for the slander and demanded an immediate end to it.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is a member of the RSS,
which also has close ties with his Hindu NATIONALIST BJP party.
HARDLINE Hindus linked to the BJP have threatened street
protests during the Pope's visit November 5-8, demanding a papal apology for preaching
that Christianity was the only path to salvation. A CPI-M statement said a
demonstration organised by the MILITANT World Hindu Council (VHP) had set off from the
western state of Goa and was scheduled to reach New Delhi before the Pope's arrival.
"India is a multi-religious country and the head of any
religion is free to visit India to participate in religious functions. This has never been
questioned before.
"It is a sign of changed circumstances that ... hostile
propaganda against a religious group is freely conducted, CONTRAVENING the laws of the
land."
It urged the government to take "immediate steps" to
curb the anti-Christian propaganda. "Failure to do so will further damage the secular
image of the country in the eyes of the world."
The Archbishop of New Delhi, Alan de Lastic, last week accused
Hindu ZEALOTS of spreading "half-truths, lies and disinformation" ahead of the
Pope's visit.
He also urged Vajpayee to "take urgent steps to prevent
anything that would mar" the visit.
While in New Delhi, the Pope is to announce the conclusion of
the Asia synod held in April-May last year at the Vatican.
He is also to hold a public mass at a sports stadium and a
service for archbishops from South and Southeast Asia.
It will be the pontiff's second visit in India, a country he
visited in 1986.
India's tiny Christian community accounts for just 2.5 percent
of the overwhelmingly Hindu-majority country of about one billion.
Christians say attacks on them and churches have increased
since the BJP party took power in March 1998. Vajpayee was sworn in for a second term last
week. |
