Article 355 Is Believed To Be Issued By The Centre Against Orissa To Ensure That The State Government Carry Out Its Constitutional Responsibilities
New Delhi: The Union government has warned the government of Orissa, the scene of violence against Christians over the past two weeks, invoking a rarely used constitutional provision that typically precedes the declaration of Central or President’s rule in a state if it goes unheeded. A senior minister of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, or UPA, government in New Delhi told Mint that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had, on 4 September, personally asked home minister Shivraj Patil to issue a warning to the Orissa government led by the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) under Article 355 of the Constitution. The minister…
I am appalled at the rampant insensitivity in most Indian-Christian responses to the gross human rights violation in Orissa. In 1999, We didn’t know how to respond to the attacks against the Church in Gujarat. It’s been almost a decade now and We still haven’t learnt to respond to attacks against hapless tribal christians. We can only view it ‘religiously’. We speak about the glories of martyrdom. We resort to jingoism and claim it to be signs of an impending explosion of churches. We moralize and ask our brothers to forgive the perpetuators. We treat these ghastly acts as events that would bring revival. Sadly, we do everything but stand alongside our brothers and sisters in Orissa.
Graham Stuart Staines was the Australian missionary who was burnt to death along with his two sons Philip, aged nine and Timothy aged seven while sleeping in his station wagon at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district in Orissa, India in January 1999. Graham Staines had been working in Orissa among the tribal poor and especially with leprosy patients since 1965. He spoke fluent Oriya and was very popular among the patients whom he used to help after they were cured. He used to teach them how to make mats out of rope and basket from saboigrass and hand weaving. The widow of Graham Staines, Gladys has said the perpetrators of the crime should be forgiven. "I've no hatred for anyone. "I've no anger," Mrs. Gladys Staines responded." 
Ms. Rajni Majhi, a 20 year old student who lived in the orphanage and was also working as an auxiliary nurse in the orphanage confronted the mob of Hindus. When Fr Sequeira arrived at the spot, the mob locked him and Rajni into separate rooms, and ordered the children to vacate the orphanage. The mob then ransacked Fr Sequeira's room, poured petrol on him and Rajni and set the orphanage on fire. I could hear the cries of Rajni, and the mob was cheering and shouting through the window. These criminals tied her hands together - they made a huge bonfire in the orphanage room and threw her onto the fire. They used sickles, shovels and other weapons to prevent her from running away, these extremists did not allow her to even move from the burning flames". All the while I could hear the cries of Rajni from the next room where she was writhing in agony. After sometime, there was silence. Rajni Mahji was burnt alive.