Silence is very loud indeed!

The way Christians are being tormented, humiliated and harassed all over India makes one doubt the assurances given in the Constitution. Incidents like these had never happened in the past 52 years of independence,in such an organised manner.

Persecution is not new to Christianity and the Christians have well been motivated by their master to maintain their integrity amidst adversity. Posterity and international community will judge the working of democracy in India by the way the minorities are being treated here.

Every religion preaches the message of love and anyone who is truly religious will not stoop to such cowardly criminal attacks. It is high time the Centre acted positively and created a sense of security amongst the Christians. We, as a nation, should rise to the occasion and condemn such acts of violence no matter against whom they are committed.

It is not known why in a country which boasts of tolerance,such acts of terrorism are unleashed. Except pious statements issued from time to time both by the State and Central Governments nothing concrete has been done.

Several temples are being built in the U.S. and other parts of the world because Hinduism has much to offer. The people of the West are not feeling threatened or getting upset by the Hindu culture spreading with force. It is sad that Hinduism and India are now being discredited in the world by the unchecked hate campaign in India.

Almost no conversion from the dalits and the tribals to Christianity could have happened if only these Hindutva's negative elements had turned their attention to the still prevalent denial of human rights to these sections and had done something to give them some dignity.

We feel sad that the leaders of the government,religious leaders (of all faiths) and respected Hindu citizens in India and abroad are not calling upon the forces behind, which are also maligning the name of Mahatma Gandhiji, to disist from their hate campaign.

Their silence is very loud indeed.

Gaspar Almeida & Ulysses Menezes
Goa-World Team
http://www.goa-world.com/

(Originally posted in the year 2000 on Gulf-Goans e-newsletter and other Goan mini-lists)