Hindu extremists make more accusations

HONG KONG — The working president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Ashok Singhal, told a gathering of Hindu priests in New Delhi on July 30 that the motive of Christians is not the welfare of people. He said Christians were working under a calculated plan to target weaker sections of Hindu society and convert them with the purpose of “bringing a maximum area under the influence of Christianity.”

The allegations came on the heels of an attempted kidnapping of a Catholic nun on the outskirts of the Indian capital, New Delhi, on July 30. Police said three men from Sahibabad in the Ghaziabad district covered the face of Sister Celine John with a sheet and escaped in a van. But Sister Celine, of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate, escaped when the van stopped to pick up an accomplice.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Elliott Abrams, urged U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to closely monitor religious violence in India during the upcoming year and respond “vigorously” to further violations there. 

In his letter dated August 2, Abrams said, “In India, the central government appears unable (and possibly unwilling) to control growing violence by self-proclaimed Hindu nationalists targeting religious minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians.”