Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (MS)
Mangaluru, Apr 1: President of Catholic Sabha Mangaluru Pradesh Stany Lobo, PROs Fr J B Saldanha and Roy Castelino met SP of Dakshina Kannada district and submitted a complaint against Dr Prasad Bhandary for giving inflammatory speech against Christians at Puttur recently in a public programme. Praveen Amte, IAS assured to look into the matter and take necessary action.
The complaint submitted by Catholic Sabha says, “In the speech made by Dr M K Prasad during a programme of Hindu Jagarana Vedike (HJV), that is being widely circulated on WhatsApp from March 25, derogatory words against the Christian community are used that might create unrest in society. Dr Bhandary said, “The land on which the Christians run their institutes are given to them by the British and we (Hindus) do not have land now. We have only one country called India. If these people (Christians) drive us out of this country where we will run to? We should jump into the sea.” In addition, Dr Prasad also said, “Institutes like St Philomena Puttur, Bethany institute and St Victor institutes have taken a major chunk of land of Puttur and we now do not have land.”
“Many people might have participated in the said programme organized by HJV. Due to the inflammatory speech given by Dr Prasad, hate against Christians might have developed in the minds of some of the Hindu youths. This speech is widely circulated on social media. This might create unrest and unhappiness against Christians in society. Dr Prasad spoke words that are far from truth and also caused harm to the communal harmony. He also incited riots.
“Dr Prasad encouraged the public to develop hatred, jealousy and an inharmonious attitude towards the Catholic community. He also has disturbed public peace. He has asked to use criminal force and violence against Christians. He has caused fear and confusion among the Christian community and insulted the community.
“Accused Prasad has harmed the religious sentiments of Christian community. He has spoken with the intention of creating hatred in the catholic community. Dr Prasad, who studied in Christian institution is speaking against Christians. Due to such hate filled speech the issue of threatening the Christian community is increasing in society and action needs to be taken to prevent this. The Supreme Court has given order to curtail statements that create unrest in society. The Supreme Court said that hate speeches are dangerous to a country that is religiously neutral. Dr Prasad has violated various crimes under IPC 1860.
“We request to curtail such speeches and take stringent action against Dr M K Prasad and ask for independent, faithful and impartial investigation. In addition, we request to delete this video that creates communal hatred among communities, from Youtube and other social media channels,” stated the complaint.
The delegation which submitted the appeal to SP Vikram Amte consisted Noreen Pinto, chief secretary, Alphonse Fernandes, treasurer, Vinod Pinto, Vice president, Francis Serrao, joint treasurer, Arthur D’Souza, president of Bantwal zone, Lancy Mascarenhas, president of Puttur zone, Colin Miranda, city zone president and Stany Bantwal, media coordinator.