COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Christian outfits attack home ministry for 'selective leaks'

The Evangelical Fellowship of India, an umbrella body of evangelical organisations, has complained to Home Minister Lal Kishinchand Advani about 'selective leaks' of funding to Christian denominations.

In particular, the EFI in a letter has taken exception to the home minister's statements, as quoted by Rediff On The NeT columnist Kanchan Gupta, who is also the editor ofBJP Today, a party periodical.

The EFI claimed that such statements are part of the sinister and sustained smear campaign against the Christian community in general and against Christian institutions in particular. It said the anti-Christian campaign had gained "new heights" since April 1998.

The letter pointed out that a part of the smear campaign is the insinuation that Christian organisations have received disproportionately large amount of foreign funds. It protested against selective leaks from the ministry of home affairs, which only assisted such smear campaigns.

The EFI declared that the money it received, whether from abroad or from within India, is always above board and in the complete knowledge of the ministry of home affairs. It added that this fact had been pointed out earlier in public and to the government.

The letter stated that to end such motivated smear campaigns and their underlying agenda of communalism and hate, it is important for the Government of India to come out with the full facts of foreign donations and funding for all organisations, including non-governmental outfits, irrespective of their religious, social or political linkages.

The EFI called upon the ministry of home affairs, which monitors such donations through the Foreign Contribution Regulations Act, to immediately release the full list of all organisations receiving foreign funding.

The signatories to the statement are Reverend Richard Howell, general secretary of the EFI, and John Dayal, national secretary for public affairs of the All India Churches Union.

Speaking to Rediff On The NeT, Dayal said that by leaking out only information on how much the churches received, the ministry was distorting facts. "An article by Kanchan Gupta said the churches received Rs 126.7 million, which actually is just Rs 12.67 crores in Indian parlance. Now, is that really such a big amount for 128 church denominations all over India? Why doesn't the ministry also release details of how much the other religious organisations such as the Muslim League and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have received from abroad? Then our figure will no appear so big at all," Dayal said.

Howell pointed out that the VHP had been receiving far greater funds from sources abroad but those were being kept secret. "We are not asking the government to spare us. But don't pick on us either. Why is the government only singling out the Christians?" he asked.

Howell stated that the Christians were a peaceful community that had never created any trouble; nor did the community want to create trouble. "Such selective leaks only distort facts and lead to unnecessary tension in society at a time when our community is just recovering from the attacks on its members in the recent past," he added.

Kanchan Gupta, for his part, was only too happy to provide statistics about who received how much. "It is just that I wanted to spare Mr Dayal and his ilk the embarrassment of being shown up as purveyors of this calumny," he said in a faxed note.

According to Gupta, a total of Rs 173.8 million was received from abroad under the FCRA during the quarter of January-March 1999. The break-up is as follows:

Church/Christian organisations: Rs 126.8 million (12.68 crore)
Muslim organisations: Rs 11.7 million (1.17 crore)
Non-political organisations: Rs 17.9 million (1.79 crore)
Non-denominational organisations: Rs 2.5 million (25 lakh)
Tibetan organisations: Rs 14.9 million (1.49 crore)

"As per these figures, the largest minority group receives less than a tenth of what the Christian groups received, and everyone else is a distant second, third and below," Gupta added.

Tell us what you think of this report