Guwahati, Mar 6: After passing of 15-day deadline given to Christian missionary schools for the removal of idols of Jesus Christ, Mother Mary and the Cross, several Hindu groups led by Kutumba Surakshy Parishad have decided to move the Gauhati High Court against Christian missionaries for their anti-India activities and practices of exclusive Christianity in missionary schools and other educational institutions across the state.
“The group of Sanatan Hindu organizations have decided to move to Gauhati High Court and to file a PIL in this connection to remove the religious practice and religious installations from the school campus,” , Kutumba Surakshya Parishad president Satya Ranjan Borah said while addressing a press conference at Guwahati Press Club here on Tuesday.
The Hindu organisations have demanded the removal of the idols of Jesus Christ and Mother Mary and the Cross from the missionary schools.
The demand came following an incident at a missionary school- Calvary English School at Balipara in Sonitpur district in which a 10-year-old child was physically and mentally assaulted for uttering ‘Jai Sri Ram’ while opening a book in the classroom. The incident took place on February 5.
“This incident has violated the Juvenile Justice Act, Article 14,15 of the Constitution of India; New Education Policy along with Article 51 (A) of the Constitution of India. After the painful incident; we showed our unhappiness and wrote a series of letters to the Assam governor, chief minister, chief secretary and the Archbishop of Guwahati along with the district commissioner of Sonitpur district. But, this is very much unfortunate to see the irresponsibility and visionless behaviour of the government of Assam in this case,” Borah said.
The issue was also discussed on the floor of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly on February 27 during the budget session, when Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma said that the state government would first verify the reports about the anti-missionary school campaign in neighbouring Assam before taking up the matter with their counterparts in Dispur, and at the same time, assured safety and security of the people residing along the inter-state border.
“We have responded with an email for formal discussion with the Meghalaya chief minister too about the concern. But, no one has shown interest in solving the issues to date. It can be opined that showing their negligence the governments are showing their disrespect to the Constitution of India and its values for some unknown reasons,” Borah also said.
“Therefore, we have decided to move to Gauhati High Court and to file a PIL in this connection to remove the religious practice and religious installations from the school campus,” Borah further said.
Borah however clarified: “We have no problem with Jesus and Christianity. But, we will not tolerate the way of their soft targeting schemes to propagate exclusive Christianity in the name of providing educational services.”
“Christian Missionary schools are not notified and recognized religious institutions like the Islamic Madrassa. So, they cannot practice exclusive Christianity in their schools. They have to separate their exclusive practices from the school areas at an early date else we will go to the road for democratic protest & agitations for the sake of the protection of the constitutional values; age-old heritage culture, beliefs, spiritual practices and way of life of India,” he said.
“We will keep fighting to get back our social justice, spiritual justice, cultural justice, religious justice, psychological justice, mental-physical justice and the justice for the land of Bharat,” he further said.
An FIR was registered in Geetanagar Police Station bearing number 59/24 under IPC sections 294 and 507 after somebody from the Christian Community threatened to kill Satya Ranjan Borah and Dipankar Nath for raising their voices against missionary schools.
“We don’t want any kind of difficult consequences in Assam as like Manipur. So, we request every stakeholder and the governments kindly to understand the seriousness of the concerns and to take the necessary action immediately,” he added.
Kutumba Surakshya Parishad secretary Dipankar Nath, Hitu Bhatta from Jagrata Prahari and Gunajit Das from Sri Ram Sewa Bahini were also present at the press conference.
