Then they came for the Christians, an independent fact-finding report put together by the All India Federation of Organisations for Democratic Rights (AFDR), has probed the recent attacks on the community in Gujarat, Orissa, MOPand Maharashtra. The detailed report was released here recently. The AFDR is an an umbrella body representing rights groups in Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan.

The report examines why Christians - who form 2.32 pc of the population as per the 1991 census - have overtaken the Muslims as favourite whipping boys of the Parivar. The fear that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi may become the PM is just one reason behind the attacks, suggests the report.Rather, the planned attacks represent an attempt by the Parivar to divert attention from the failures of the BJP-led government at the Centre to address key issues like recession, election losses and political set-backs, suggests the report.

``The Sangh Parivar's drive against Christians is explicitly targeted at the adivasi regions, which are being made into the testing-ground for the Sangh's anti-Christian campaign. These regions are the most backward and poverty-ridden in our country... The BJP has been making a determined effort to enter and build up a base in these regions, where the Congress has traditionally been the most prominent parliamentary political force,'' says the report.

The Sangh Parivar has stepped up its campaign since November 1998, when the ruling alliance lost a series of state elections, observes the report. Since then, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal have held conferences detailing the `Christian threat', using the bogey of conversions to paint Christians as`anti-national.'