In India, the organization ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy) has filed a petition in the Indian Supreme Court asking the court to order the Central Bureau of Investigation to look into the distribution of a CD that suggests that Christians should be attacked by Hindus and beheaded. Last Friday, NewKerala.com reported that a 3-member panel of the court has watched the CD that has been widely distributed in Gujarat, Maharashtra and in northeastern states. The organizers of the upcoming three-day Shabri Kumbh Festival made the CD titled "Shri Shabri Kumbh 2006". ANHAD asserts that the central government has the responsibility to ensure secularism in India. The Gujarat government has not initiated any action against those who produced or distributed the CD, and it is allegedly playing an active role in distributing it. The court ordered the central government, the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat and the organizing committee for the Shabri-Kumbh Mela to respond to the complaint that has been filed.
The suit follows calls last month by ANHAD for the Indian government to ban the upcoming Shabri Kumbh, scheduled to begin February 11. (DNA India report.) ANHAD claims the festival will be used to convert tribal members to Hinduism. Many of the tribal people who have followed their own tribal religion, have been converted to Christianity. Right wing Hindus claim the conversions were obtained through improper use of gifts to the individuals. The festival is being organized by the right-wing Hindu Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS), which has ties with the country's main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata. Extensive additional background on the controversy is in a Jan. 6 article in Rediff India Abroad.
