history Wednesday, June 29, after the government appointed a Christian as the new police chief of the tense Indian state. In a statement obtained by the BosNewsLife Orissa Bureau, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said Suchit Das, who converted to Christianity, would be "the new Director General of Police of Orissa."
The announcement was expected to be welcomed by Christian advocacy groups, who have accused police of not doing enough to end what they see as growing Hindu violence against individual believers, church leaders and missionaries.
HINDU PARTY WORRIED
However the influential Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a nationalist Hindu party, reportedly expressed "reservations" about the planned appointment of Das as he is a Christian convert. But its objections were overruled by chief minister Patnaik, BosNewsLife established.
Das was to take over as police chief from Bipin Behari Mishra who retired Wednesday, June 29. Before his latest job, Das had a prolonged career since 1971 in the high profile Research and Analysis Wing under the Government of India, seen as the equivalent of the American Cental Intelligence Agency (CIA).
During his 14 years tenure in RAW he had two foreign assignments, one in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and the other in Bonn, Germany, police officials said. Das later occupied several important positions, including Special Secretary in the home department and posts in a special police crime branch.
NEW POLICE POLICY?
It was not yet clear what steps, if any, would be taken by police under Das’ leadership to stop Hindu militant activities, including the BJP’s plans to train "over 2,000 youth" and to distribute weapons "to combat missionaries" in Orissa within the next two years.
In addition conversion of Christians back to Hinduism will also be done in "various border districts of Orissa" where Christian missionaries have been preaching the Gospel, a VHP representative told BosNewsLife.
Tensions have often run high between Christian and Hindu communities in Orissa, where Australian missionary Graham Steines and his two young sons were killed by an angry mob in January, 1999.
In a move criticized by churches and rights groups, the Orissa High Court last month cancelled the death sentence of a Hindu militant involved in the murders and instead ordered life imprisonment. The court acquitted 11 of the others sentenced to a life term and retained a life sentence for another man. (Satya Sundar Mishra as BosNewsLife India Reporter based in Orissa. Mishra, 26, is a Development Journalist of Orissa working on social and religious issues that are not yet on the radar screen of media and politicians. He has been working for a variety of key publications and is currently also active as Sub-editor and Senior Reporter with Odisha Bhaskar, a regional daily newspaper. He can be reached via e-mail satya_mishra11@rediffmail.com ).
