NEW DELHI, March 15 (Compass) ? A concerted attack
on Emmanuel Mission International (EMI) orphanages,
schools and other ministries in Rajasthan intensified
this week when the state welfare minister, Madan
Dilawar, said he should be stoned to death if
his government effort to take over EMI's properties
failed.
The statement came less than a month after
the state unduly revoked the licenses of an
EMI Bible institute, orphanage, school, hospital
and church in the northern state. According
to the Hindi daily Rajasthan Patrika, Dilawar
on Monday (March 13) said also that he should
be stoned if he is unable to "take action"
against EMI's founder, Archbishop M.A. Thomas,
and his son, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Thomas.
Hindu extremists on March 3 offered a reward
of $26,000 each for the heads of Archbishop
Thomas and his son. The same day, M.S. Kala,
additional director of the Department of Social
Welfare of Rajasthan, ordered district collectors
to take over EMI institutions and froze their
banks accounts, according to Rajasthan Patrika.
The next day, however, Rajasthan Chief Minister
Vasundhara Raje stepped in to halt the attempted
takeover.
A representative of EMI in Delhi who requested
anonymity told Compass that the Registrar of
Societies gave a three-day notice before revoking
the registrations of their institutions on February
20 "on the pretext of violation of procedures
required by the laws related to societies."
After EMI officials responded to the allegations,
they were told that their reply was unsatisfactory
and all their licenses were revoked.
EMI operates under five registered societies:
Emmanuel Bible Institute Samiti, Emmanuel Anath
Ashram (Orphanage), Emmanuel School Society,
Emmanuel Chikitsalaya (Hospital) Samiti, and
Emmanuel Believers Fellowship. EMI leads a native
church movement receiving aid from Columbus,
Georgia-based Hopegivers International for humanitarian
and educational work with over 10,000 children.
One Child Dead
Authorities have taken some measures to protect
EMI institutions.
"The state administration has now deployed
police at all the institutes of the mission
to ensure the protection of their workers,"
Jacob Matthew, administrator of the Emmanuel
hospital, told Compass.
Matthew also said that Kota District Collector
Niranjan Arya today (March 15) gave him assurances
that he would not allow the patients in the
hospital, and the 2,500 children at the Kota
orphanage, to suffer due to the tensions. The
Emmanuel Hope Home in Kota is funded by Hopegivers
International.
On February 2, a mob of Hindu extremists attacked
an EMI orphanage in Tindole, resulting in the
death of one child and the stoning and beatings
of children, staff and local clergy. On February
10 in Ramganjmandi, a Hindu mob burned to the
ground an EMI school and orphanage. According
to mission officials, local police warned the
head of the EMI school and orphanage in advance
that they would not stop the violence.
Also on February 10, police in Kota notified
Emmanuel Seminary that they would not provide
security for the graduation ceremony of 10,250
students and advised Archbishop Thomas to cancel
or postpone it. More than 8,100 students relocated
their graduation ceremonies to cities in southern
India.
After the license of EMI's Kota orphanage was
revoked, a gas agency had stopped providing
fuel at subsidized rates. Emmanuel Hospital
administrator Matthew said Arya, the Kota district
collector, assured him that the supply of gas
for the orphanage would be provided at the lower
price as before.
Hindu extremists on February 25 called for
a boycott of the orphanage, ending legal aid
from lawyers and food from merchants for the
children. EMI officials said that on Febrary
27, building inspectors were being recruited
to find fault with the orphanages, schools and
church buildings in order to have them condemned
and torn down and replaced with yoga centers
and Hindu temples.
Tensions began on January 25, when Archbishop
Thomas and his son received anonymous death
threats warning them not to hold the annual
graduation ceremony for hundreds of orphans
and Dalit Christian students scheduled for February
25. The ceremony was postponed in the wake of
the threats and attacks.
On February 20, V.S. Thomas, officer in charge
of the Hope Center Orphanage in Raipura, and
R.S. Nair, mission chief operating officer,
were detained without charges. During the arrests,
police stood by as an accuser beat one of the
men, according to Hope International.
In Sanganer on Febraury 22, extremists vandalized
a mission school, closing it as elementary school
children tearfully ran home, according to Hope
International. Two days later in Jaipur, Hindu
extremists desecrated and vandalized the Jhotwara
Emmanuel Secondary School and Church building,
the organization said.
Systematic Campaign
A visit from a fact-finding delegation of parliamentary
members from the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
may result in the return of EMI bank accounts.
Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Monday
(March 13) gave assurances to the delegation
that he would take steps to revive the bank
accounts of EMI frozen by the Rajasthan government.
Archbishop Thomas and his son, meantime, have
gone underground after non-bailable warrants
were issued against them for being the alleged
distributors of a book called Haqeeqat (The
Truth, or Reality), which the Hindu outfits
alleged denigrates their religion and deities.
Under Indian law, hurting religious sentiments
of any religious community is punishable offense.
Moreover, according to a Supreme Court ruling,
truth is not a defense under this law, Section
153(a) of the Indian Penal Code.
Archbishop Thomas' attorney, Mohammad Akram,
told Compass that EMI had nothing to do with
the controversial book, written by attorney
M.J. Matthew in the southern state of Kerala.
"A few books were kept at the Emmanuel
Mission center at Kota for sale, and no one
had read the book ? otherwise they wouldn't
have kept it at their center," Akram said.
The Sangh Parivar, a family of organizations
affiliated with the extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh, is using the controversial book as a
pretext for carrying out a systematic campaign
against minority groups, Suresh Kurup, head
of the parliamentary delegation told Indian
Catholic News Service.
Kurup told the news service that the attacks
seemed to be "a planned operation,"
as the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Sangh
Parivar aimed to close EMI institutions permanently.
