At least half of the population in Orissa belongs to the outcast segment – untouchables or tribal – based on the caste system, noted the Archbishop of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, located in the region of Orissa, at the event hosted by public policy think tank Hudson Institute.
As a result, the government is “not interested” in developing Orissa, which remains the least developed and poorest state in India despite being the biggest supplier of minerals in the country, he said.
“Orissa, in the eyes of the government, is a non-entity as a state,” Cheenath, who is visiting the United States this week, said.
To support his argument, the Archbishop pointed out that a fact-finding team from the central government arrived in Orissa only after the violence against Christians had been raging on for two and a half months.
However, when Karnataka, a state in South India, was attacked, the government was able to stop the violence within five days “because there are more educated and more important people there – politicians,” Cheenath claimed.
Then when the Mumbai attacks occurred, the violence was stopped in three days “though they were the most dreaded terrorists”, he noted.
Cheenath, frustrated over the lack of concern for Orissa, wrote a letter to the Indian prime minister saying that he does not understand how the government can stop the Mumbai attacks in three days, Karnataka in five days, but could not stop the attacks on Christians in Orissa after more than four months.
“So you can see the difference,” Archbishop Cheenath said. “There is discrimination. There is a neglect from the state as well as the central government because Orissa is not an important place.”
Earlier in the talk, the Archbishop informed the audience that Orissa’s northeast region has a “very high” percentage of Christians - anywhere from 60 to 90 per cent - compared to one percent or at most 17 per cent in other areas of the state and country.
