We have repeatedly documented and highlighted the divisive, disturbing and violent trends in Orissa and Karnataka from 1999 onwards but specifically after 2006. Seemingly to no avail. The end of last year brought a dark and fearsome Christmas to fellow Indians in the eastern Indian state of Orissa.

Our cover story deals with the attacks on Christians by Hindutva activists in Orissa during Christmas week, where several lives are still unaccounted for, over 70 church institutions were destroyed and the climate of suffocation and fear still clouds Kandhamal and neighbouring districts. As our commentator, John Dayal says, no one really knows the full plight of Christians in the refugee camp at Barakhama. Relief groups and civil society were barred from the area despite repeated pleas by organisations of the stature of CARITAS, EFICOR and the like, as well as personal appeals by Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar. Angana Chatterji, who was part of the Indian People’s Tribunal on Environment and Human Rights, also visited Orissa. We bring readers her in-depth analysis and chilling photographs of the Orissa violence.

In his ‘Postcard from Kandhamal’ on January 10, John Dayal makes an insightful observation, "We need to tell civil society in India and abroad that the attack on Christians in Orissa is at par with the repeated mauling of Muslims in Gujarat and other states, and an integral part of the sangh parivar’s ideology." CC brings you these reports in the hope that our readers, all flag-bearers of sanity, put their heads together to make our struggle against this divisive politics more coherent and more effective.

To bring you some more bad news, India has witnessed a significant increase in crimes against women with several cases being reported in the first fortnight of the new year. CC also focuses on some of these.

The past six months have seen the revival of a strong citizens’ campaign on the issue of punishment for those guilty of the anti-Muslim pogrom in Mumbai in 1992-1993. The so-called secular government which has been ruling the state since 1999 has repeatedly made false promises in this regard and has, in actuality, promoted guilty policemen and allowed politicians guilty of utilising the ideology of hate to go scot-free. CC has been actively engaged in reviving the issue through the ‘Justice for All’ campaign. We bring you a detailed report.

As we move from 2007 to 2008 we cannot but reflect on the outcome of the Gujarat polls that brought Narendra Modi, accused and indicted of masterminding mass slaughter and destruction, back to power after an impressive electoral victory. The contours of the electoral battle, the issues raised in the public domain as also the tardiness of a system in prosecuting serial mass crimes that undermine constitutional governance are all issues begging our attention. Most depressing of all, the utter lack of conviction in those political parties espousing the secular cause to adhere steadfastly to constitutional principles of governance tells its own tale. We shall, in coming months, be bringing readers our analysis of Gujarat.

Meanwhile, after a depressing start to the year, Friday, January 18 brought justice, partial at least, to the strong, dignified and fearless Bilkees Bano, a victim of gang rape and eyewitness to the brutalisation and slaughter of 14 persons, including her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Saleha, in Gujarat 2002. Thirteen persons were convicted, eleven to life imprisonment, while five senior policemen and two doctors charge-sheeted for destruction of evidence went scot-free. Bilkees’ words as she addressed the nation on January 21, 2007 have been met by deafening silence. "Why the fear now?" she asks. "Why can I not go back to my own village even now?" "Why does the Gujarat government not give me protection?"

This is a question not just Modi but all of India has to answer.

– Editors