Christian Activists Misleading: Bjp

The BJP yesterday castigated Christian activists for trying to paint the party and the Vajpayee government as anti-minorities over the recent attacks against Christians -citing reports of the National Commission for Minorities to argue that the attacks were routine law and order incidents that were blown out of proportion and given a communal colour.

Protection of the rights of the minorities was the fundamental duty of any government, BJP spokesperson M Venkaiah Naidu asserted. Those indulging in communal violence must be punished. However, he added, attempts by some political parties and "vested interests" to discredit the BJP and the government were only helping to discredit India in the international community, Naidu said.

Some of these reports sought to project these incidents as a part of the broader gameplan of the BJP-led governments at the Centre and Uttar Pradesh to persecute the Christian community, Naidu held.

However, the commission had concluded that the reported incidents were ordinary law and order events with "no communal colour whatsoever," Naidu pointed out. This was also corroborated by the nuns and authorities of educational institutions which became the unfortunate targets of certain anti-social and disgruntled elements in their neighbourhood, he stressed.

Naidu particularly targeted the anti-government statements by `Mid-Day' editor John Dayal, accusing him of having a pro-Congress bias.