The All India Christian Council has lodged a formal complaint with the Chief Election Commissioner against the threats meted out to the Christian community and its clergy by BJP president Rajnath Singh during his so called Suraksha Rath Yatra. The CEC has also been briefed on the blasphemous statements of former BJP chief L K Advani and the envir0onment of hate that has been created in the country to polarise communities during the on going assembly elections in various states.

The media has frequently quoted Rajnath Singh `daring' Christian missionaries to "try converting any Hindu" and vowing `to turn tables on them'.

The formal complaint was made by Christian Council secretary general, Dr John Dayal, who is a Member of the Government of India's National Integration Council, and Ntional President of the All India catholic Union. The following is the text of the letter sent to the CEC on 13 April 2006
The Chief Election Commissioner
Nirvachan Sadan
Ashoka Road, New Delhi

Re: Threatening speeches by BJP leaders Rajnath Singh and L K Advani target Christian community, seek to isolate it in India, thereby making it vulnerable to physical violence

Dear Sir

This is to bring to the attention of the Election Commission of India gross violations of electoral codes of conduct and political morality in the anti Christian venom spewed in the political speeches of Bharatiya Janata party president Rajnath Singh and his senior colleague Lal Krishna Advani, during their twin Rath Yatras across the country.

That these statements come even as the BJP's mentors in the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, Bajrang Dal and other groups carry on a series of coercive conversions of tribal and Dalit Christians in various states, make the political motives crystal clear. These are accompanied by threats of enacting more laws against Conversions, again specifically targeted at Christians as in the case of Rajasthan, and using the most militant language against Clergy and Missionaries of my faith.

This patently fouls the political environment. This also divides communities and pushes the nation to the brink of divisiveness on the basis of religion which challenges the very secular foundations of the Indian state and its Constitution.

Above all in human terms, this put the microscopic Christian community into a state of despair and fear, which is most unhealthy for its development and search for equality in the land where it has lived for almost 2,000 years. This talk of Indic religions and alien religions pushes India back into a feudal and medieval mindset from which our ancestors in the Freedom struggles and the fathers of the Indian constitution had striven to liberate it.

I have lodged formal complaints with the heads of the Police of Gujarat and Delhi after the Parliament Street Police Station's Station House Officer refused yesterday to entertain my written complaint. I have urged the Police to lodge FIRs and criminal proceedings sunder Section 153 A of the Indian penal Code against the BJP leaders.

I enclose herewith a copy of the speech of Mr. Rajnath Singh as also my complaints to the Police.

I most earnestly call upon the Election Commission to take cognisance of this appeal and launch appropriate proceedings against the guilty

Thank you

John Dayal
Enclosure I
Pradeep Kaushal
Posted online: Monday, April 10, 2006 at 0000 hrs IST
JASHPUR NAGAR, April 9
BJP president Rajnath Singh dared Christian missionaries to "try converting any Hindu" and vowed to turn tables on them today. The BJP president, who had been speaking at a string of public meetings on his way to Jashpur Nagar from Raigad in course of his Bharat Suraksha Yatra, turned unusually aggressive after entering the domain of Dalip Singh Judeo, who spearheads the Sangh Parivar's "Ghar Vapsi" (reconversion) programme among Adivasis. Be it Dharamjaigarh, Pathalgaon, Kasabel, Kunkuri or Jashpur, Singh had a single theme: Those who are converting Hindus, take heed. There is no mercy for you.

Warming to his subject, Singh said Christian missionaries tried to convert people in the name of service. But "there cannot be a more cruel joke than the use of money or service to convert the poor." Referring to Rajasthan government's fresh law cracking down on conversions, he pointed out, "as soon as I became the BJP president, I told all my party chief ministers to enact laws to check conversion and foil the designs of Christian missionaries". The Jharkhand government is ready with a draft bill, he said, and called upon Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, who was on stage with him, to follow suit. Even Madhya Pradesh, which already has a law on the issue, needs a more stringent legislation, he told The Indian Express later. Conversions comprise the biggest danger to society, he told his audience, and "we cannot allow the demographic profile of the country to be changed. We will not let Hindus be converted into a minority, as somebody has said they would be by 2060. As long as the BJP is on the political scene, it would fight such attempts tooth and nail". Singh had a word of praise for Judeo too, who accompanied him on his 'rath'.

"I appreciate Judeoji from the core of my heart for carrying on the ghar vapsi programme. It is something unparalleled - a scion of a royal family washing the feet of people upon their return to the Hindu fold."

Rajnath's choice of Jashpur to take on Christian missionaries has a strategic significance.

The area has the biggest church in Chhattsigarh - at Kunkuri - and has a sizeable Christian population. Not surprisingly, the Parivar has boosted its activity here. The countryside is dotted by Saraswati Shishu Mandirs, meant to counter missionary schools. VHP general secretary Praveen Togadia conducted a "trishool diksha" programme at Kasabel last week.