Catholics in central India launch e-mail campaign for peace in Orissa

Published: 2008-01-03

JABALPUR, India (CNS) -- Catholics in India's central Madhya Pradesh state have launched an e-mail campaign for peace in Orissa state, where observers say Hindu radicals attacked Christians in hope of political gains. Archbishop Leo Cornelio of Bhopal launched the campaign Dec. 31 by sending an e-mail to Indian President Pratibha Patil and then to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He appealed for steps to check Orissa's sectarian violence that began Dec. 24 and claimed five lives, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. Orissa is ruled by a coalition that includes a regional party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the political wing of groups trying to make India a Hindu theocratic state. Several violent attacks against Christians also have taken place in Madhya Pradesh since the Bharatiya Janata Party took control of the state government in December 2003. The archbishop's e-mail urged the federal and Orissa state governments to compensate victims' families for loss of life and property and called for a probe by the federal Central Bureau of Investigation.

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