Archbishop of Bangalore Rev. Dr. Bernard Moras extended warm greetings to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on the occasion of Deepavali. On behalf of the Christian community, he thanked the State government for rejecting the “one-sided and biased” report of the B.K. Somashekara judicial inquiry commission report.
The Archbishop, who is also the president of the Karnataka Region Catholic Bishops’ Council (KRCBC) and the All-Karnataka United Christian Forum for Human Rights (AKUCFHR), submitted an eight-point charter of demands for implementing the recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
Following attacks on churches, the NHRC had visited places of worship of the Christian community in Mangalore, Udupi, Chikmagalur, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum and Bangalore in 2008.
Archbishop Moras, accompanied by Home Minister K.J. George, presented a three-page letter to the Chief Minister on Friday night at the latter’s official residence.
Other major demands were providing compensation to victims of attacks whose properties were damaged; ensuring security to Christian churches and institutions; bringing culprits to book and disallowing local religious fundamental groups to take the law into their hands.
“We appreciate the assurance given to the Christian Community that its interests would be protected,” the Archbishop said.
“What surprised us was that these attacks and vandalisms were carefully planned and executed with the patronage of the then State government and a few fanatic leaders of a particular religious community,” the Archbishop alleged.
