Posts Tagged ‘hypocrisy’

Shocking acts of cruelty in religious strife

Friday, October 10th, 2008

– I’ve ragged on India before.   It is my strong opinion that if a nation wants to present a first world hi-tech face to the world, it might have a serious thought about correcting its third-world medieval problems at home as part of an integrated effort to bring the whole country forward.

– India is both blessed with some of the best hi-tech minds of the 21st century and some of the biggest hypocrisies in the world.   Stunning poverty, class prejudices, bride burning and on and on.   And now, the story below:

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As she recalled her awful story, Puspanjali Panda, 38, made no attempt to halt the tears pouring down her face.

Holding her daughter close, she told how a Hindu mob dragged her husband – a Christian pastor – from his bed, beat him to death with stones and iron rods and then threw him into a river.

She found his corpse two days later, washed up on the bank. When she went to the police, they told her to go away.

Panda and thousands of others like her are victims of the worst communal violence between Hindus and Christians that India has seen for decades.

For a country that boasts of its mutual religious tolerance, the long-simmering tension that has erupted in the Kandhamal district of the state of Orissa – a nun being raped, churches being burned, at least 35 people killed and thousands forced from their villages – is both a belated wake-up call and a mounting embarrassment.

More… (if you can stomach it)