ORISSA, India — Christians in Orissa state are anticipating Christmas with fear as Hindu extremists have called for a statewide bandh, or forced shutdown on all sectors of society, Dec. 25 — a move that could provide Hindu extremists the pretext for attacking anyone publicly celebrating the birth of Christ.
The state’s chief minister has said there should be no such shutdown but stopped short of prohibiting the Hindu extremists’ plan, and the Hindu extremist umbrella organization Sangh Parivar has vowed to press ahead with it, reported newspaper Outlook India.
Though such shutdowns were declared illegal by India’s Supreme Court in 1998, the president of the Laxmanananda Saraswati Condolence Society (LSCS) sent a threatening notice to the Orissa government Nov. 15, warning that the Hindu extremist group would impose a bandh on Christmas unless the state government arrested those who murdered Hindu leader Laxmanananda Saraswati Aug. 23. Ratnakar Chaini, president of LSCS, called for the shutdown in a massive rally in Delhi Nov. 15.
Inflammatory speeches at the rally by Chaini and others led Christians to believe the shutdown would serve as the pretext for another spate of violence against those publicly celebrating Christmas. At the same time, in Orissa’s Kandhamal district, more deaths of Christians have been reported in the past two weeks.
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