4000 protestors court arrest near Jantar Mantar

New Delhi, May 29 (UNI) Over 4000 people belonging to Christian, Muslim and Dalit communities today took part in a demonstration near the Jantar Mantar here to protest against the incidents of violence targetting minorities across the country.

Addressing the rally, Dr John Dayal, National President, All India Catholic Union said while there has been an increase in violence targetting innocent Muslims and Christian priests, nuns and pastors, the UPA Government has been a silent spectator till now.

''It is part of a well-planned challenge to India's ethos of secularism. This conspiracy tests the legitimacy of the State's promise of protecting its citizens, and the Government has not done anything about it,'' he said.

The protestors were arrested and taken to the Parliament Street Police Station. They were later released.

Referring to recent incidents of violence in Rajasthan and Kolhapur, Dr Fatima Shehnaz, president of the India Peace Organisation, said in just six months there were more than a hundred incidents of violence against innocent Christians and Muslims but the perpetrators of the violence are at large.

Citing few instances, she said a Catholic priest was forced to flee a village in Udaipur district when a mob of Hindu extremists beat him up. Sometime back, RSS workers in Himachal Pradesh shaved the heads of two Christian missionaries and then forced them into the Ganges River as a token of their conversion to Hinduism, she said. And in all these cases, the culprits have not been brought to book, she added.

''In Gujarat, Mr Modi who was responsible for the killings of hundreds of people, is still at the helm of affairs. How will the victims get justice?'' Also speaking on the occasion, All-India Christian Council national president Joseph D'Souza said that the UPA Government, that came to power on its secular credentials, has failed to live up to the expectations of the minorities. ''Though there is a Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra, a Christian pastor was beaten up there openly. And in Himachal Pradesh, the Congress-led Government quietly passed an anti-conversion law that encouraged the BJP to unleash terror on the minorities,'' he said.

He said the Government must repeal the Anti-Conversion law, ''otherwise all its talk about secularism is bogus''.

Mr Dayal said, ''Hate-filled rhetoric of fundamentalist groups and fanatical gangs of thugs go on attacking minority groups but the dministration and police forces act mute.'' He demanded that the Prime Minister must come out with a statement, explaining what measures his government has taken to curb the activities of the fanatics.

The protestors refused to give a memorandum to the Prime Minister, saying, ''now it is his turn to speak''.

UNI