A mob killed a man allegedly carrying beef in Jharkhand on June 29, hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed killing people in the name of cow protection as unacceptable. Police sources said Alimuddin alias Asgar Ansari was carrying the “banned meat” in a van in Ramgarh district. A mob stopped him near Bajartand village and attacked him. His van was also set on fire too. Police l rescued him and took him to a hospital where he died during treatment. “It’s premeditated murder,” Additional Director General of Police RK Mallik told IANS. Tension escalated in the area after a police team returned with the dead body and a crowd gathered outside the Ramgarh police station.
Category Archives: From The States
Declare St Teresa’s birthday ‘Compassion Day’: Mumbai NGO to UN
A Mumbai-based NGO on June 27 urged the United Nations to declare August 26, the birth anniversary of St Mother Teresa, International Compassion Day. In a state-ment, Harmony Foundation President Abraham Mathai said compassion is the need of the hour and what better way to have the world observe Inter-national Day of Compassion than by celebrating it on the birth anniversary of Mother Teresa, “whose life symbolised compassion and hope.”
“The Harmony Foundation has decided to celebrate August 26 as the International Day of Compassion to commemorate Mother Teresa’s work among the poorest, hungry, homeless, crippled, lepers and the most unwanted people of society shunned by all. We have written to the UN to likewise declare the day in honour of her selfless services,” Mathai said.
When RSS loyalist Kovind said Islam, Christianity are alien to India
“Islam and Christianity are alien” to India, NDAs Presi-dential candidate Ram Nath Kovind said seven years ago when he was just appointed a BJP spokesperson. Kovind, then a little known BJP leader, addressed a press conference at the BJP headquarters here on March 26, 2010, sought that the Justice Ranganath Misra Commission, which had recommended inclusion of Muslim and Christian converts among the Scheduled Castes, be “scra-pped” and called the move “unconstitutional.”
Asked then by an IANS correspondent as to how Sikh Dalits could enjoy the quota privilege in the same category, he responded: “Islam and Christianity are alien to the nation.” A Supreme Court ruling on March 25 that year had upheld the Andhra Pradesh government’s decision to allow four per cent job quota for backward Muslims.
The proposed reservation for backward Muslims was a burning issue then as the National Commission on Religious and Linguistic Minorities, headed by Justice Misra, former Chief Justice of India, had in a report recommended that backward Muslim and Christian converts should be accorded Scheduled Castes status and given a quota. Kovind, an RSS loyalist who worked for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, said the Misra Committee recommendations were not possible to implement. “Including Muslims and Christians in the Scheduled Castes category will be unconstitutinal,” the lawyer-turned-politician said.Indian society,” he said.
India court affirms priests’ right to property despite poverty oath
A high court in southern India has ruled that Christian priests and nuns are entitled to their right to property despite their vows of poverty, signalling an end to a centuries-old tradition that has left many in the clergy destitute.
In its order in favour of a priest whose relatives cut him out of his share of ancestral property, the court in Kerala said a priest can give up his property if he wishes to, but there can be no “automatic deprivation” because he is in a religious order and has “renounced worldly pleasures.”
The ruling applies to all religions in the state, and to women in a religious order as well. The high court, which overturned a lower court’s ruling against the priest, placed the Indian Succession Act – which guarantees all citizens equal inheritance rights – above canon law, which requires the surrender of any inheritance to the church, said Sabu George, a lawyer for the priest.
“Hundreds of former priests and retired priests are living in penury in India, as most families refuse to take them back when they are old and have no work,” said Kalamparambil, who quit the priesthood after 27 years.
The Catholic priests’ association has long demanded a state pension and compensation from the church for retired priests and those who leave the clergy. They are often forced to live on a small stipend or depend on the largesse of the parish. A spokesman for the Catholic Church in the state said they were disappointed with the ruling, and may appeal. “It is unfortunate that the law of the church has not been appreciated,” said Paul Thelakat, a senior Catholic priest.
“Detachment from property and worldly life is our tradition. This has not been positively valued and upheld.”
Priests and nuns have right to ancestral property: Kerala HC
In a landmark ruling, the Kerala High Court has held that Christian priests and nuns have right to ancestral property and that their vow of poverty does not deprive their rights.
The ruling was given by a division bench after considering an appeal (AS No. 460/2000) challenging a lower court’s ruling that a priest does not have right to ancestral property as he takes a vow of poverty as part of attaining priesthood.
In the judgment, the court said, “To hold that one would suffer a ‘civil death’ and be deprived of his property on entering into the Holy Order would be a naked infringement of Article 300-A of the Constitution of India (right to property). Of course it is the volition of a Hindu ascetic or a Christian priest to relinquish his right over his personal property in favour of a Mutt or Monastery in a manner known to law.
But there cannot be any automatic deprivation of property acquired by way of intestate or testamentary succession by the mere fact that one has entered into the religious order and renounced his worldly pleasures.”
There is absolutely no statutory prohibition for a Christian priest or nun in the matter of intestate or testamentary succession of property in his or her personal capacity, the judgment delivered on June 7 stated.
Ban on cattle slaughter insult to Christians, Muslims: Manipur Congress
Manipur Congress on May 28 said Centre’s ban on sale of cattle for slaughtering was a direct attack on Christians and Muslims. The ban of cattle slaughter was against Muslims and Christians and a challenge to the two communities by the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, said Congress spokesperson and sitting MLA Md Fajur Rehman.
Addressing a news conference at Imphal Congress Bhavan, the spokesperson alleged that the recent move of the Central government has insulted secularism of the country.
He said that India as a secular country has now been put at stake by a “dictator government.”
“Congress will fight tooth and nail the challenge in the fore of the minority Muslims and Chri-stians,” the Muslim leader said. Alleging that BJP as a commu-nal minded party is infusing communal venom among the different communities, particu-larly among the minority co-mmunities, the Congress spokesperson called upon the people to join hands with the Congress in rooting out such party from the soil of the state.
Former deputy mayor of Imphal Municipal Corporation (IMC) Meibon Phaomei who also attended the news conference alleged that the latest move of the Central government once again showed anti-Christian activities which the BJP has been indulging across the country.
Northeast Christians won’t accept beef ban: Meghalaya BJP leader
A rebel-turned-politician from Meghalaya said the BJP would reduce the price of beef if voted to power in the state while insisting that the Centre should take the public’s view before putting any restriction on the sale or consumption of beef. Bernard Marak, who is BJP’s Tura unit president, said the beef ban should not apply to states with a Christian-majority.
“Meghalaya has a huge demand for beef but the prices are not regulated. Neither is there any slaughter house nor is the meat certified by doctors. As such, sometimes old meat is mixed with fresh meat. If BJP is voted to power, it will look into the issues and regulate the prices so that people don’t have to buy meat at a high price,” Marak told the New Indian Express.
“The Centre wants to ban beef consumption but it should not apply to the Christian-majority states where most people consume meat including beef. Any ban has to be on public consensus.
Meghalaya being a tribal State, we want the sentiments of the people to be respected,” he said. Marak, who co-founded insurgent group Achik National Volunteer Council, said any restriction on beef consumption in Meghalaya would create a big impact. Rival political parties are criticising the BJP by calling it a “Hindu party,” he said.
Bengal church vandalized, looted
Unidentified mis-creants vandalized a church in West Bengal in the early hours of June 6.
Police said they have launched search to find the culprits who attacked the 127-year-old St Luke’s Church at Dayabari Mission Gate in Ranaghat in the Nadia district. The miscreants stole old religious items and 3,000 rupees, the church authorities said.
“The Holy Sacrament was torn to pieces by miscreants. The other religious items, like the chalice and bronze candle stands were damaged and a few were taken away along the cash. They took the cash after breaking open a cupboard,” pastor Kishor Mondal told reporters.
“The stolen and damaged articles are very old. It is a blow for us,” he added.
Christian leader blasts Chhattisgarh’s tribal sterilization rules
A Christian leader in Chhattisgarh alleges that the eastern Indian government’s move to protect primitive tribes infringes personal freedom.
On May 26, the Chhattis-garh government passed an order amending the 1979 rule passed by then undivided Madhya Pradesh to protect primarily vulnerable tribal groups.
The amendment “is an attack on the free thought of an individual,” Arun Pannalal, president of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum, told Matters India June 6.
The new rule stipulates tribals who want sterilization should apply for permission from their subdivisional magistrate.
While making the law in 1979, the government officials said the order was necessary to protect primitive tribes that had extremely low health indicators. The tribes also showed a negative rate of growth and there was fear of them dying out.
The state has seven primitive tribes that are on the verge of extinction.
The Chhattisgarh govern-ment officials say the amend-ment is a “step forward,” but Pannalal and other activists denounce it continu-ation of an inhuman practice of denying the tribes “autonomy over their own bodies.”
“It is up to the individual or the family to decide whether they want to procreate or not. There should not be any interference from anybody from outside,” the Christian leader asserts.
If the government is serious about primitive tribes’ welfare, it should provide them better health care and educate them to improve their living conditions to enhance their population, Pannalal says.
Anti-Christian violence on the rise in India
Attacks against Christians are increas-ing in India, with 260 incidents recorded in the first five months of 2017, according to Persecution Relief, an ecumenical Christian forum that monitors incidents of persecution. The organization counted 348 incidents last year, an average of 29 incidents per month, while this year the monthly average, 52, almost doubled. The offences reported include murder, physical violence, destruction of churches, threat and harassment, social boycott, hate campaigns, abduction and attempts to murder. “It is an alarming situation for us,” said Shibu Thomas, founder of Persecution Relief, who started the organization in 2015 to provide support to the victims of persecution in the country.