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Treat people behind anti-Christian attacks as terrorists: Jaya

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham general secretary J Jayalalitha today condemned the torching of an Australian missionary and his two sons in Orissa and said the perpetrators of the crime were anti-nationals who had brought the country shame and ridicule in the international arena.

In a statement in Madras, she said the incident was the latest example of the depredations of the fanatics who threaten peace, social stability and the country's long tradition of moderation.

She said those using violent means against people practising alternative faiths should be dealt with ruthlessly as terrorists. "They should be identified and hunted down like their co-believers in violence in Kashmir and the north-east," she added.

Reminding that suppression of the minority Tamils had led to the creation of a guerrilla movement in Sri Lanka and fundamentalism had turned Afghanistan into a morass of death and devastation, she said we should take lessons from them. Also we should learn from Pakistan where denial of equal rights to the minorities and Shias had led to continuous violence, she added.

Recalling that the Constitution guaranteed full freedom for all faiths, Jayalalitha appealed to those opposing the work done by missionaries to compete with them in building hospitals, schools and colleges on a scale larger than the many constructed by Christian institutions. ''Let them oppose by mobilising more resources for similar constructive work that would be a battle according to humane rules,'' she added.

She said violence had to be kept beyond the bounds of discourse for reviving and unifying our society to fulfil the vision of a "superpower India" by the year 2000 spelt out by Bharat Ratna Dr Abdul Kalam. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had correctly called for a return to moderation, she added.

She said the official media should wake up from its deep slumber and produce programmes and documentaries on the destruction and damage caused by fanatics all over the world, be it Lebanon or Angola, instead of a constant diet of speeches. The intelligent use of the mass media with programmes exposing the risks of fanaticism was required to instil afresh a moderate culture deep in our minds, she added.

Jayalalitha said these "new terrorists", who were seeking to destroy the very essence of India, should not be allowed to harass the minorities and humiliate the country internationally.

UNI

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