On January 23, 1999, a group of over one hundred terrorists burnt to death the Australian missionary Graham Staines, his nine-year-old son Philip and six-year-old son Timothy who were asleep in a station wagon. For the past 35 years Staines had been nursing leprosy patients in an institution in Orissa. Staines and wife Gladys had totally identified themselves with the Indians and Oriya people in every respect.

When the President, K R Narayanan heard about this brutal murder, this is how he reacted: "Burning to death that missionary who had sacrificed his life for lepers, instead of thanking and appreciating him as a role model, has become a monumental aberration of India’s tradition of tolerance".

The reaction of Mrs Gladys Staines who lost her husband and two sons, was a golden seal of Christian love set on the conscience of the world: "I am totally shattered. I am in grief but I am not angry. I have no grudge against anyone. Jesus Christ has taught me to forgive my enemies". Yes, Jesus’ teaching is just that "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous"(Mt 5:44-45). If only these words that will melt any heart were read by the perpetrators of this dastardly act, their wives and children!

This diabolic incident is only a small part of a wide network of planned conspiracy. This is only one aspect of the fanaticism inspired by the slogan, "One country, one religion, one culture". Some time ago, in Orissa itself, the huts of Christians living in two villages were attacked and burnt down. Two months ago Christians remanded in custody in Udayagiri in south Orissa, were dragged out of the jail, and hacked to death in front of the police station. Both the victims were Adivasis who had embraced Christianity. These incidents were the ultimate result of communal and religious feelings fanned into flame in order to secure political power.

Whipping up communal feelings and turning them into a vote bank is playing with fire. This communal fanaticism easily attains diabolical proportions beyond the control of those in authority. Do those leaders who give the clarion call for such communal barbarism realise how many innocent lives are immolated in this forest fire of hatred? Once they are blinded by the heady intoxication of power, what else are these leaders capable of, in face of another’s grief, except absolute indifference? No matter how much innocent blood is shed, all that matters to them is to be firmly entrenched in their seats of power.
 
 

Our government and rulers are so powerless that they had to fly by a chartered plane and beg for mercy when communal fanatics threatened to prevent a cricket match with the neighbouring country!
 

There is only one thing behind all this: religious madness. The madness which insists that only the religion they believe in will be permitted here and all must accept it. On Republic Day of 1999, the President, quoting Gandhiji, said, "The India of my dreams is not one which will be rooted in one religion and attain development. The India of my dreams is not a country, in which there will be only Hindus, or only Muslims or only Christians. The India I visualise is one which will march forward with hands locked together in complete mutual tolerance" . Do those religious fanatics who cry, "One nation one religion, one culture" and destroy the places of worship of people of other faiths and set fire to their cinema halls and prevent their cricket matches, ever read such matter?
 
 

When man grows in age, knowledge and experience, his opinions also undergo change. As far as an individual is concerned, to be a believer or a non-believer, to change one’s religion or not to do so, are all his rights. It is not proper for political parties or governmental organisations to interfere with these rights.

If one could not change one’s religion, there would never have been any new religion today except the ones that existed at the beginning of the world. Major religions like Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and the Sikh religion did not exist in the beginning of the world. After these religions originated, people from other religions, began joining them in due course. That is how these religions have developed. What then is the rationale behind the demand to ban conversions? Several Hindu organisations are propagating Hinduism in America and Europe and converting Christians to Hinduism. Do the religious fanatics here want them to be burnt to death?

Just as some political parties at times threaten, attack and even do away with those who leave the fold and join other parties, the barbarian, religious fanatics of Bharat, in a similar manner, are destroying the places of worship of the people of other religions, their institutions and vehicles and even raping their women. This is precisely what is happening in Gujarat, Orissa, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh!
 
 

So the real problem is that exploitation and oppression will be prevented by the presence and service of the missionaries. Christian ministers and workers like Sr Rani Maria were martyred because they opposed such oppression.