RSS activists turn good Samaritans, rescue dozens of Christians injured in accident in Orissa

New Delhi – Help came from unexpected quarters, when some 50 volunteers from the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), reportedly rescued around 80 Christian clergymen involved in a roadside accident in Sambalpur district, Orissa, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI).

Local media as well as the Organiser, a RSS–published weekly, have confirmed the incident, but till date, the claim has not been verified by independent source.

According to the news reports, a group of some 90 Christian clergymen left Jamankeri for Goudpil where they were to take part in a wedding celebration. However, midway, they were involved in an accident near a local forest.

The Organiser claimed that although 10 of them died due to injuries in the accident, around 50 RSS activists, on hearing the cries of the Christians, rushed to their rescue and helped them get admitted to a nearby hospital. The RSS activists not only provided the injured with medicines and food but also “donated their own blood” to the injured, it said. The magazine also reported that one Pastor P. Samal, who was one of the injured, expressed his gratitude, saying, “these RSS boys have given us a new life. We are grateful to them. May god bless them!”

Another injured person, John Kumar Dungdung, affirmed how vital the assistance was. “If the RSS men had not rushed to the spot, most of us would not have survived,” he recalled from his hospital bed.

UCA News has reported that the Church of North India (CNI) Bishop Khristo Charan Das of Sambalpur has hailed the timely help, calling it “praiseworthy.”

The rescuers, according to news sources, were very modest about their good Samaritan act. “We have done nothing much. What we have done has been done for humanitarian reasons. All of us are human beings. We are all children of God first and then Hindus or Christians,” The Observer quoted RSS state secretary, BB Nanda, as saying.

Ravi Kumar, a RSS activist, admitted that when he went to rescue the injured, he did not know that they were Christians. "Later we came to know that they were Christians. But even after knowing that we were determined to help them," he said.

Surprisingly, however, The Observer failed to mention both the time and date of the incident. Bishop Thomas Thiruthalil, chairman of the Bishop’s Conference of Orissa, however, remained skeptical of the rescue claims. “I am unable to guarantee the authenticity of the news,” he said.

“What I can say for a fact is that these extremist groups threaten minorities. Recently, they mobbed my lay catechists in a remote area. So I have no comment to make about their alleged rescue mission,” he said, refusing to comment further.

John Dayal, chairman of the All India Christian Union (AICU), too, expressed his skepticism. “This rescue story involving 80 clergymen travelling through a forest in a remote area only to get into an accident with another ten dying whilst Hindu extremists who just happen to be in the same place is intriguing,” he said.

“I have tried to check out the story, but it was impossible,” Mr. Dayal added. “The death of ten Christian clergymen should be front page news in the national press, on TV newscasts, on the net, but there is no official information forthcoming from the government,” he continued.

“This is cause for concern,” he explained, “and for investigation at the highest level.”

Recently, the Hindu fundamentalist outfits like the RSS, the Bajrang Dal (BD) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) earned the ire of secular political parties and the Christian community of Orissa for organizing weapon–distribution ceremonies, wherein hundreds of Hindu extremists were handed over swords, tridents and other sharp weapons, and for promising to train and equip thousands of activists in “terror–camps” to hinder the work of the Christian missionaries within the state and elsewhere.

This has also led to the fear within the Christian community in Orissa, that soon ‘religious terrorism’ may force them to discontinue their social work and leave the state. And, their fears are not unfounded, for Hindu fundamentalists are very much active in Orissa – the state chapter of the VHP has a membership of 60,000, while the youth wing Bajrang Dal has 20,000 members in 200 locations. As for the RSS, its magazine recently boasted that the organization holds 2,500 daily morning gatherings in its various centers (known as shakhas,) and has a 100,000–strong supporter base within the state alone. Besides, over 4 million people in Orissa are believed to be members of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), an ally of the state’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) party.

Presently, anti–conversion law exists in only three states in India and Orissa is one of them.

In Orissa, out of 37 million people, only 2 percent constitute the Christian population.