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Advani's team drafting master plan to end communal killings

George Iype in New Delhi

The Union home ministry is preparing a multi-pronged plan to tackle the recurrent caste conflicts and killings in Bihar and the communal clashes in Gujarat, Orissa and Karnataka.

The ministry headed by Lal Kishenchand Advani has identified nearly 100 districts in the four states, which it would soon notify as among the most violence-prone areas in the country.

The ministry in consultation with the Prime Minister's Office is also planning to set up a special cell at the Centre to monitor violence against backward classes and castes and atrocities against minorities in these districts.

Home ministry officials disclosed that intelligence and investigative reports on the many incidents of caste conflicts and communal killings in the last six months have proved that "religious mistrust" and "rural poverty" are the main reasons for the escalating violence in Bihar, Gujarat and Karnataka.

According to the ministry findings, there have been nearly 40 incidents of religious clashes in Orissa and more than 50 cases of atrocities against Christians, group clashes between tribal Christians and Hindus, destruction and demolition of churches, temples and Christian-run institutes since July 1998.

Directed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the home ministry is now compiling detailed "security reports" on the four states in consultation with the respective state administrations.

While the state government of Gujarat headed by Chief Minister Keshbhai Patel has already sent its report to the Centre, the home ministry is awaiting similar law and order reports from Bihar, Orissa and Karnataka.

According to the Gujarat government's intelligence reports, religious conversion and re-conversion are the main reasons for the increasing social tensions in the state. The state administration has compiled details of the conversion of tribals to Christianity by missionaries in districts like Nabarangpur, Gajapati, Phulbani and Malkangiri.

A home ministry official said that despite repeated requests, the Orissa government headed by Chief Minister Janaki Ballabh Patnaik is yet to submit investigative reports on the murder of Australian missionary Graham Stewart Stains and his two sons. The ministry on Friday also asked for details on the rape of a Catholic nun in the state.

"We are also examining the findings of the National Commission for Minorities on the recent violence against minorities in Orissa, Gujarat and Karnataka to chalk out a central plan of action to check the law and order in violence-prone areas," a senior ministry official told Rediff On The NeT.

He said a crucial report on the caste conflicts and killings between the upper castes and the dalits in Bihar is being prepared by home ministry Special Secretary R D Kapur in the wake of the recent carnage of 22 dalit workers in Shankerbigha by Ranvir Sena activists.

The ministry's findings in Bihar said that the failure of the Rabri Devi government to redistribute among the landless poor nearly 1.7 million acres of land is the primary reason for the recurrent caste killings in the state.

Though the Bihar government possesses nearly 1.7 million acres of land as part of the Bhoodan movement, this land is yet to be fully distributed to the dalits in some of the poorest districts in the state.

"Violence in Bihar stems from land conflicts. The central government has umpteen times demanded introduction of land reforms to bridge the socio economic disparities between the land owners and the landless dalits. But the state government has so far not acted," an official pointed out.

While the Bihar government has not utilised funds allocated for rural development like construction of roads, bridges, electrification and sanitation, the state administration has done little to improve the literacy levels in the rural districts.

Every year, the rural development ministry at the Centre provides the largest share of funds to Bihar for the development of rural and tribal areas. Last year, the central share for rural development in Bihar was nearly 18 per cent.

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