Conviction of Dara Singh in the murder of Pastor Graham Stewart Stains (September, 2003) and his two minor children comes as a small respite in the present scenario where the perpetrators of communal violence generally do not get punished. It is rare that the prosecution makes the case properly and then deterrent punishment is awarded. It is worth recalling here that Dara Singh instigated the village youth and led their mob to torch the Pastor and his two sons who were sleeping in a jeep out in the open on the night of 22nd Jan 1999.

This act shook the nation so much that when the then President Dr. K.R. Narayanan said that this is an act from the world's inventory of black deedsand that it is a monumental aberration which went against the traditions cherished by all Indian's he was articulating the shock and anguish of average Indians. Since Dara Singh was associated with Bajrang Dal, none other than Madanlal Khurana a cabinet minister resigned in disgust saying that there is enough proof that the murderer was from Bajrang Dal. At the same time in an operation cover up, Mr.L.K. Advani, the BJP supreme, Home minister, asserted that he knows the Bajarang dal too well and they cannot indulge in any violence. The major attempt to put a lid on this act came from the delegation of ministers comprising of M.M. Joshi, Biju Patanaik and George Fernandes. This trio visited the site for two hours and declared that the murder is part of the international conspiracy to destabilize the BJP led NDA Govt. At the same time VHP's Ashok Chowgule stated that Stains invited this act due to his activities of conversion which the natives resented and have done him to death. This was the thinking of most of the segments of RSS affiliates.

In the wake of this episode Wadhava commission was appointed to investigate this crime. Though the brief of this commission was very narrow still it did come to the conclusion that Pastor Stains was not involved in the acts of conversion. He was mainly a leprosy worker. The population of Christians in the area where he was working did not show any significant rise. It was 0.27% in 1971 and was 0.31 in 19991. Again from 1991 to 1998 the rise in population was a biological one rather than due to conversions. This is in contrast to the claims of RSS ideologues who maintain that Pastor was doing the conversion work. It is laudable that the widow of Pastor Stains, Gladys Stains, has forgiven the culprits of her husband and children's murder and has dedicated herself to carry on the anti-leprosy work which her husband had initiated.

This single episode demonstrates the deeper designs of those pursuing communal politics and agenda for their vested interests. It has been popularized from last many a decades and more so during the last few years that Christian missionaries are converting the gullible, poor adivasis to Christianity, that this is supported by the international funding, that this conversion is the cause of secessionist activities in the North East. One is struck by the timing of beginning of anti-Christian violence from 1998. During this year alone there were 116 attacks on Christians, which is more than the number of attacks which took place in all the previous years put together. This was the year when BJP led NDA coalition was ruling in the center. Since then the number of such attacks went up for next three years or so. The accusations against Christian missionaries have come up during last few decades only. As such in a democratic country, since religion is the private matter of the individual, it is immaterial whether people from different religions are trying to spread their religion to others or not. As such it is ironical that Christianity, which is older in India than in many a countries in the west, is being called a foreign religion. As such the percentage of Christian community in India has been formed over a period of around fifteen centuries and in the year 2001 their population stood at 2.18%. Also there has been constant decline in their population during last four decades, 2.60 (1971), 2.44 (1981), 2.32 (1991). While this core statastics is questioned on the ground that there are many crypto Christians, a new innovative term, who 'hide' their religion to avail of social facilities. One is aghast at this argument. How many privileges and other reservations are available for low caste now? Can so many Christians not declare their religion to take benefit of reservation? Since when did they start hiding their religion? This argument defies all the logic.

The statistics of North Eastern regions is flashed regularly. Here the overall population being low, it has no bearing on the total number of Christians in the country. In the total population of close to 21 million Christians it is less than 2 millions, and they are being projected as a danger in the North Eastern region. Their adopting Christianity from the tribal cults is a matter of their own choice. The north eastern ethnic issue is deliberately being projected as the one related to religion. Interestingly, the major terrorist outfit ULFA, one of the militant groups of NE, is not a Christian outfit. The state of Manipur which has the Hindu majority is also the state which has the highest militancy in that region. India is a Nation in the making and faced with many ethnic challenges. Confusing ethnicity and religion is another ploy which the dominant political streams are indulging in. A very low level propaganda is being indulged in to demonize the Christian missionaries about their methods, miracles etc. While demonizing the Christian missions in far flung areas the Christian activities in cities around educational institutions and health related work are being totally ignored. Are all the Christian missionaries of the same mould? There are many sects amongst Christians, like any other religion, and their practical activities are not uniform. Surely some of them might be doing the conversion work, bur so far as their work is done in the framework of Indian constitution it should not worry us. Even in states where the anti-conversion laws have been brought in hardly any cases have been registered against the Christian priests for doing illegal conversion work.

One must reiterate that working in the constitutional limits is as much the right of Christian missionaries as of any other preacher. The campaign of Gharvapasi in which tribal are converted to Hinduism is as much a conversion. It is looked up as a laudable act as it is presumed that adivasis are Hindus. To regard them as Hindus is the cleverest ploy of RSS politics. If religion is determined by one's holy books, prophets, festivals, places of pilgrimage, and the clergy, Adivasis by no stretch of imagination can be called as Hindus. But again their taking to Hinduism is their right as much as it is their right to take the Christianity or Islam or any other religion for that matter. The issues around conversion are political issues and have nothing whatsoever to do with religion or Nationality. In democratic set up to assert that only people belonging to a particular religion or religions are nationalists is the biggest insult to our constitution. Hindutva after getting emboldened by post babri demolition surge has undertaken anti Christian attacks and attack on conversions in order to consolidate it own self by projecting Christians as threat to the Hindu Nation. Surely the contribution of Christians, Muslims in freedom struggle and Nation building is as much as that of Hindus. To cast aspersions on any particular religion for secessionism or for being anti-national is the act which will weaken the unity of the nation. It is time we wake up to the false propaganda being spread by RSS and its affiliates and bring the national agenda back to solving the unresolved issues facing the country be they ethnic, or the one's related to the dignified survival in the society.