New book claims killing of Christians was planned

A leading Indian journalist has uncovered new evidence regarding the murder on 23 August 2008 of the Hindu spiritual leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, which triggered India’s worst campaign of anti-Christian violence, writes Rita Joseph.

Anto Akkara, who reports from Delhi for The Tablet, claims in his book, Who killed Swami Laxmanananda?, launched in Delhi last month, that the murder of the 81-year-old Hindu leader was used as a pretext for an orchestrated campaign that led to the murder of nearly 100 Christians in the Kandhamal district of Odisha, the plundering and burning of 300 churches and 6,000 Christian houses, and the creation of more than 56,000 Christian refugees.

“Shockingly, hardly anyone is in jail for these crimes because the judicial system has been subverted,” Akkara claimed at the book launch. However, police did arrest seven Christians – six of them illiterate – from remote jungle areas and put them on trial for the murder of Saraswati. They were sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2013. “This travesty of justice has been perpetrated by a [Hindu nationalist] octopus that has spread its tentacles [through] the nation,” Akkara asserted. Saraswati’s murder and consequent attacks on Christians were “pre-planned and carried out by forces who had envisaged the collateral damage”, he alleged.

Akkara linked the anti-Christian violence to a statement Saraswati had made in an undated interview with a Hindu media group. The 31-second video clip was included on a Hindu nationalist propaganda CD titled “The Agony of Kandhamal” that was obtained by Akkara and played at the launch. “The actual intention of Europe, US, the Pope and Sonia Gandhi [President of the Indian National Congress party] was to convert the entire region into an independent Christian land … God has sent me from Himalaya and [the plan] was stalled. That is why their campaign was to drive [me] away and create a Christian land. As long as I am alive I shall not let [that happen],” Saraswati says. The recording is available on YouTube under the title “Who killed Swami Laxmanananda?”.

“So it was easy to spread rumours that the Christian community was behind the killing of the leader,” Akkara pointed out. He claimed the murder was a “supari” (contract) killing timed for the night of the Hindu festival of Janmashtami (celebrating Lord Krishna’s birth). Saraswati’s personal police bodyguard was missing from duty on the day of the assassination. Of the four police guards at the ashram, one claimed he was threatened and detained by the assailants, another ran away and two others were missing when the killers struck.

 “All this points to the fact that it was a pre-planned supari killing by Christian-baiters,” Akkara claimed. For unexplained reasons, he said, doctors were hurried that night to the ashram and asked to “rush” with the post-mortem. From early the next morning, the body was taken out in a procession along a zigzag route for two days through Christian-dominated areas “to incite Hindus to target the Christians”, Akkara said.

The veteran Indian journalist Kuldip Nayar, 93, was the main speaker at the book launch. “The country cannot be ruled by a certain religion, but by the Constitution. The idea of India is in danger today,” Nayar warned.
The seven imprisoned men are Duryodhan Sunamajhi, Munda Badamajhi, Sanatan Badamajhi, Garnatha Chalanseth, Bijay Kumar Samseth, Bhaskar Sunamajhi and Budhadeb Nayak. Akkara brought their wives to Delhi on 3 March to launch an online petition www.release7innocents.com to call for their release.