32. Some of the reported incidents of attacks on Christians have turned out to be without any basis. Why has this happened?

      We will deal with three incidents here. In case of the rape of the four nuns in Jhabua, the Sangh parivar was held as being guilty of the crime without any foundation. Subsequently, out of the 24 people arrested, the local police said that 12 are Christians. No one who had accused the Sangh came forward to apologise to the organisation. Moreover, this incident is still listed as an attack on Christians.
     After the dastardly killing of the Australian missionary, in the same state of Orissa there was a report of a nun being raped after accepting a lift from a taxi which had men disguised as women. Right from the beginning, the story had full of holes. However, the English media lapped it up, and highlighted it as another incident of attack on Christianity and implied that it was the Sangh that was behind the attacks. The Christian churches organised a rally in the state, protesting the rape.
     Within a few days a medical report stated that there was no rape, and that the other injuries sustained by the nun were of an earlier date. The holes in the story became more apparent, because the sequence of events in the incident were obviously false. After all this came out, the papers that wrote editorials, holding the Sangh indirectly responsible, did not find it necessary to have a follow-up editorials admitting their mistake, and deliberate perversions. Neither did the church apologise for trying to fabricate an event.
     On Feb 2, 1998, the Associated Press, an American news service, put out a report that an American missionary, Dr John Sylvester, had been forced by 'Hindu fundamentalists' to close down his school and clinic in Allahabad and take sanctuary in a Baptist Seminary. It turns out that Dr Sylvester is an Indian citizen, not a priest, does not run a school, and never met the AP correspondent. One does not know what action AP has taken to punish their correspondent for sending an obviously false report.
    These incidents reinforce the impression of a conspiracy, both national and international. It also reinforces the feeling that the Christian churches are involved in it. The 'rape' incident in Orissa, reflects poorly on the morality of the church, which has no feeling of remorse in getting a lady member of the organisation to humiliate herself in the public.
     

TOP


See also Q.23, Q.24 Q.26 & Appendix

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