Home Ministry seeks reports on church blasts

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 9. The series of explosions in different churches spread over three States, all on Thursday morning, have forced the Union Home Ministry to look at the grim reality of growing attacks on Christians even as the Congress(I) and the Left saw a ``pattern'' in the incidents which they said ``led a trail to the Sangh Parivar related outfits.''

In the face of the well-timed explosions, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Government it presides over could no longer hide behind the theory they were expounding till yesterday, that the attacks on churches and Christian priests and nuns were being ``blown out of proportion'' and that they were simple ``law and order problems'' related to incidents of ``dacoity and loot''. The Home Secretary, Mr. Kamal Pandey, was in touch with the States - Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa - where the incidents had occurred, and was awaiting reports before a ``strategy'' was worked out. (A UNI report quoted Mr. Bandaru Dattatreya, Minister of State for Urban Development, as saying that the Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, had, at a meeting this evening, agreed to depute central intelligence agencies to probe the recent attacks on various churches). But even as the Government began acknowledging for the first time that there was a problem, Mr. Arjun Singh, senior Congress(I) leader said the Prime Minister must himself make the effort to forge a national will ``which will have to be pitted against these communal and fascist forces'' indulging in ``wanton and murderous attacks'' on the minority community.

While Mr. Singh refrained from naming the Sangh Parivar outfits, the Left was far more direct saying the attacks had been ``systematically planned,'' and that they would add to the already heightened sense of insecurity among the minorities. The CPI leader, Mr. D. Raja, suggested that the ``trail of violent incidents seemed to lead to the Sangh Parivar outfits.''

The BJP and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, an RSS offspring, both preferred to blame an ``ISI conspiracy'' for the incidents. Mr. J. P. Mathur, vice-president of the BJP, said his party and the Government were ``committed to the security of the minorities'' and he appealed to the Christians ``not to be misled by political propagandists'' who were blaming the ruling party and the RSS outfits.

The Government, which at the highest levels till yesterday had been dismissive of several attacks on churches, priests and nuns, today expressed ``serious concern'' and Home Ministry officials began to see a ``pattern'' behind the attacks. It may be recalled that after the first reported attacks on churches in Gujarat, the Prime Minister visited the State and asked for a ``national debate on conversions''. The impression that the BJP and the Parivar outfits have been creating is that somehow the violence was related to ``forced conversions''.

But even as the Government ``waited'' for reports from States, the Left and the Congress(I) were clear that the issue was too serious for a laid-back attitude which the Government had displayed so far. Mr Arjun Singh condemned the ``irresponsible elements'' who were ``gradually destroying the secular fabric of the country'' while the CPI(M) charged that the repeated incidents had demonstrated that those behind them enjoyed political patronage.

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