NEW DELHI, 2 June 2003 — An illegal survey of Christians in the state of Gujarat has aroused the concerns of minority leaders, particularly Christians. They fear that such surveys could arm Hindu extremists with “ready-made hit lists of the nature made famous by Nazi cadres.” Hindu extremists are reported to have used similar lists to target thousands of Muslims in sectarian violence in Gujarat last year.
“Such surveys are dangerous and illegal because other than the national census, held under (federal) laws, no one else has the right to ask intimate questions on faith,” John Dayal, secretary-general of the All India Christian Council (AICC), told Arab News in an interview yesterday.
Protesting against the alleged persecution of Christians in Gujarat through such clandestine surveys, the Tamil Nadu Bishops Council said: “We...are pained to observe...the repeated forms of certain clandestine surveys once again being launched by the machinery of the state government of Gujarat against our Christian brothers.”
Even though anti-Muslim riots have ceased in Gujarat, Muslims continue to be isolated, with extremist Hindu parties having directed the Hindus not to interact with them socially and commercially.
Dayal fears that even Hindus who have been interacting with Christians might have been deliberately included in the survey to prevent such social interaction.
The Christian Council has once again drawn the attention of the National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission for Minorities to Christians being “targeted” in Gujarat through such surveys. Earlier, on petitions filed by the Council, on at least three occasions, the Gujarat High Court issued directives to the state government to refrain from undertaking such a community-based survey.
The Council filed another petition on Thursday in the Gujarat High Court challenging the “census of the Christian community in Patan.” Though the state government denies having ordered any survey, reports suggest that the government has been conducting a discreet survey of Hindus who converted to Christianity over the last decade in Patan district.
The survey began on May 24.
In Dungripur village, 69-year-old Father Munnu, in charge of a Catholic ashram, said that police arrived at the ashram’s door past midnight last week. They left when the priest questioned the advisability of making inquiries in the dead of night as there were no complaints against him. Police returned the following morning in civilian clothes to record details of the ashram.
Police also visited the homes of some 10 Christian families in the village as well as the neighboring Tankvaas, Khalipur and Odhava villages. Earlier, a group of people, apparently illegal surveyors, was caught posing as journalists and taking photographs of Christian houses.
While Patan Deputy Superintendent of Police R.R. Bhagat admitted to having conducted a discreet inquiry, he denied it was a survey. “It cannot be termed a survey as only a few people were questioned to find out the truth about some media reports about some mass conversions in the region.”
