FRESH ANTI-CHRISTIAN RIOTS IN T. N.  

Madras : ‘Kill Christians & Muslims to promote Hinduism’. This is the dictum of RSS. And this high caste Hindu fascist party has been systematically implementing its principle 8 spreading its influence with great speed unmindful of the serious damage it is doing to the society. Since such a hate Muslim & Christian slogans help divert the attention of the poor masses from issues to non-Issues, the Big Business pours funds to such RSS counter-revolutionary activities. RSS staged its latest anti-Christian riots at Nagercoil, the hqrs, town of the Kanya Kumari dt. on the southern tip of India, with great vigour from Feb. 11-14, in the name of holding the second “Hindu Unity Conference”. DV readers may recall that it was exactly last year, soon after concluding the first ‘Hindu Unity Conference’, KK dt. was caught in India’s worst ever anti-Christian bloody riots killing six poor Christian fishermen. Hundreds of khakiclad chaddi party boys have been brought to this district to attack Christians in the name of uniting Hindus. RSS has been nourishing this dt. bringing funds from North India given by the rich businessmen, whipping up anti-Christian hatred among poor backward class Hindus. The one argument that RSS uses with great effect is that in the latest 1981 census the Christian population of the district has exceeded that of the Hindus & this proves that the church is bent upon carving out a Christustan out of the strategic southern tip of India by resorting to largescale conversions. The TN govt. headed by Chief Minister MGR, who is a puppet in the hands of Brahmins, thought of making use of the RSS to its political advantage, particularly to finish the powerful Dravida Kazagham of Periyar EVR. But actually, RSS started eating into his own party, made the MGR govt. unpopular. It is this forced the Govt to come out with a strong indictment of the RSS role in the Feb. 13 Nagercoil anti-Christian riots. The IN Finance Minister making a statement in the State Assembly here on Feb. 15, admitted that the riots were “planned & instigated by fanatical elements like the RSS”. This is the first time the TN govt. is openly admitting the RSS role in KK dt. And the Hindu, always a symathiser of RSS, rarely publishes anything critical of the RSS. But surprisingly in its issue of Feb. 16 it carried a three-column story of the Assembly proceedings criticising the RSS. From this we can make out the seriousness of the situation. While we are yet to receive reports from our Nagercoil dalit contacts, the Govt. version given in the Assembly itself is very alarming. The Minister said hundreds of RSS activists had gathered at the Hindu College grounds on Feb. 13 despite the ban order. The Govt. banned the conference after receiving definite reports that the RSS was planning a major attack on the Christians, many churches. Largescale arms and ammunition was also collected for this purpose. The crowd exceeded 10,000. And RSS leaders were instigating the innocent crowd to defy the ban. Some leaders were heard shouting that “we want religious freedom to destroy other religions”‘.  It is this cry that alarmed the police and it decided to stop the–growing might of RSS. CPM, CPI, DMK, ADMK, Muslim League and all sections of the House greeted the Govt decision to crush the RSS fascists.