Visits promoted to sites of Christian martyrdom

A minister in Orissa has offered a special package of Christian spiritual tourism to the state, where anti-Christian riots killed scores of Christians last year.

Tourism and Culture Minister Debi Prasad Mishra told some visiting Protestant some on Nov. 13 said the state wants to highlight Christian heritage and religious amity in the state.

“Orissa has huge potential for religious tourism, especially Christian heritage tourism. We have a large number of Baptist and Roman Catholic churches and colonial heritages in the state, which could attract a large number of tourists,” Mishra said.

A team of 33 bishops of the Church of North India (CNI) visited the state recently to see situation in the tribal dominated Kandhamal district where the anti-Christian violence was mostly focused.

“Kandhamal episode is over and normalcy has returned to the state,” the minister claimed. He said some “communication gap” had brewed criticism from international bodies. “Things are clear now,” he added.

Media reports said the move is to undo the negative publicity the state received after the seven week-long anti-Christian riots. Church people say the 2008 violence orchestrated by Hindu fanatics had killed some 90 people and displaced 50,000, mostly Christians.

Church people and secular groups have accused the state government of tacitly aiding the fanatics and being negligent in arresting the culprits.

Reverend Enos Das Pradhan, general secretary of the CNI Synod, said the government has “brought things into normalcy” in the state. He noted Orissa has a long history of Christianity and peaceful coexistence. “The step to promote religious tourism will make the bond stronger,” he added.|

CNI moderator Bishop Purely Lyngdoh of Northeast said tourism brings people together and become means to promote peace. “We want to neutralize the past experience in Kandhamal riots through tourism initiative,” he added.

The minister said the state wants to tell Christian leaders that Orissa “is full of religious heritages belonging to their religion.”

Christian heritage sites will attract many from the community to the state. The state government had already included Christian heritage sites in the tourism map, he added.

But the minister reportedly refused to admit that Kandhamal riots have brought bad publicity for the state. He claimed Christians who have visited the district after the riots have reported that things were “absolutely normal.”

Source: IndianCatholic