DY Patil School July 4 2023 Incident
Over the last few days, I saw videos of a man in torn shirt and vest walling briskly away from a group of people, then running, before stopping to hand pieces of the torn clothes to a person off camera.
The tweets stated that this was "Alexzender" Reid or "Alexzender" Coates Reid.
(A photo of Mr Alexander Reid as found on Facebook)
There were largely two sets of tweets:
1. Hindu Extremists claiming sexual harassment of girls, and of coercive and exclusive teaching of Christianity;
2. Tweets mainly by Muslims saying that the attack was on false grounds targetting Mr Reid for his Christian faith.
Some people, people who weren't wearing their Christian faith on their sleeves, reposted the second category of tweets.
One news report states that children were being forced to exclusively recite the Lord's Prayer (also called the Paternoster).
Another specifically stated that children were being forced to pray Catholic prayers, exclusively.
This caused my eyebrows to rise, as best I could gather, the D.Y. Patil School is not a "Church" or Christian run institution, but is owned and operated by Hindus.
It's named for the founder-owner D.Y. Patil, a practising Hindu, formerly with the Indian National Congress (INC) Party, and later with the breakaway Nationalist Congress (NCP) Party.
Given the split in late June and early July 2023, of the NCP into Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar factions, I haven't been able to ascertain which faction Mr D.Y. Patil and his family are now associated with.
As a staunch Catholic, I will state that I have nothing but a fierce, vaporing contempt for the Bajrang Dal, that they are nothing but ignorant lumpens, and moreover, terrorists of the basest kind.
I always discount anything that the Sangh Parivar, or the Bajrang Dal, has to claim.
However, I realised that it would be foolish for me to jump in blindly, especially where there are allegations of sexual harrasment.
I do not believe that an accused is guilty until proven innocent, or, for that matter, innocent until proven guilty.
However, from experience, I would take anything claimed by the Sangh Parivar, or the Bajrang Dal, with a great quantity of salt. A spoonful would not suffice.
Regardless of whether Alexander Coates Reid was, or wasn't, guilty, there was and is absolutely no justification for the Bajrang Dal's terrorism, for terrorism is precisely the only thing that it does, and that was what it did with Mr Reid.
I won't beat around the bush: The attack on Alexander Coates Reid was an act of terrorism, pure and simple. It was also a lynching, a riot, an unlawful assembly, unlawful entry and intrusion into a non-public place, and an act of "Kangaroo Court Justice."
A school is never a public place, open to all and sundry, open to the general public.
Entry is restricted to the management, staff, students, and for parents and guardians, by permission, and usually only to certain defined areas.
As such, no school, ever, is a "Public place," where the Bajrang Dal could enter without prior permission.
Given these facts, law enforcement is required to register "suo moto" (my understanding) an FIR (Police report) and initiate strict and severe actions against the culprits.
I am not sanguine that that will happen:
Indian police tend to burke complaints, register "Non-Cognizable" reports, and try to get the parties to "Compromise."
I am sure that this is what will happen in this matter too.
Not wishing to be rash, to rush to a rash judgment of the matter, I have instituted enquiries and ascertained details of the incident.
I haven't contacted the "Hindu Rightwing" parties, as I do not believe that I have any need to. I am confident of my facts.
1. The "Hindu Rightwing" "Organizer" magazine stated, at least twice in its news report, that the installation of the CCTV was not notified to, or approved by, the management.
Also that the management suspended Alexander Coates Reid and other teachers.
No other media reported that Mr Reid is suspended.
The other news reports advise that the school has been shut down indefinitely and under further notice.
That militates against a suggestion that Mr Reid is suspended.
I strongly believe that the "report" that the school's management suspended Mr Reid is, to put it succinctly and unabashedly, bullshit.
One news media reported that Mr Reid claimed that a CCTV was installed in the common area of the Washroom or Restroom, not in the private areas, for security reasons.
The news reports also stated that students reported that they were advised of the CCTV installation during the School Assembly, and that it was done as the electrical fittings and switches in the girls Washroom or Restroom were thrice in the same month, found vandalized, destroyed.
2. The news reports show that the school under Mr Reid certainly had prayers and ceremonies of the Hindu religion and of other religions, including Yoga sessions, which hardline Christians eschew.
TAKING ALL THE FACTS, it is obvious that the assault on Mr Reid by the Bajrang Dal was absolutely without justification, and was an act of terrorism, pure and simple.
In my previous blog on the Bibha Kerketta issue, I had stated: International Laws, Conventions, etc Obligations of the Indian State obliges it to protect the miniscule Christian minority, which miniscule Christian minority, in consonance with these International Laws, Conventions, etc., must be brought under the ambit of the "Prevention of Atrocities Act" or of similar legislation, either by Parliament, or by the Supreme Court, just as the Supreme Court legislated in Re Vishakha Guidelines, Enforcement Directorate, etc.
The activities of the Hindu "Rightwing" in the Satna incident against "Fr" George Mangalapilly, and in nearly every other incident before and after, such as the Lucknow Loretto Convent School incident, the Dangs Hills Pogroms, the Kandhamal Pogroms, the Bibha Kerketta matter, the ongoing Genocide of the Kukis in Manipur and Kukiland, etc illustrate the urgent need for these additional protections for the Christian minority in India.
Lucio Mascarenhas
