Meeting with Mr. Shubhindra Kulkarni, the former advisor to the Prime Minister of India

Mr. Kulkarni said he had good memories of Kazakhstan (he has visited the Hindu community in Kazakhstan), and was distressed to hear of the situation that had developed since his visit. Rati Manjari Dasi (Kazakh ISKCON's spokeswoman) gave Mr. Kulkarni a very thorough history of the intolerance of the Kazakh government towards the Society for Krishna Consciousness, and outlined the legal and land issues that the government was using to persecute Hindus.

Govinda Swami spoke at length to Mr. Kulkarni, outlining the Kazakh Government campaign to take the land away from the Hindus. He said in 2005 - after the initial court cases of the year before failed and were thrown out of even the local courts - the Government stepped up their campaign, and in a letter to the Justice Department - mistakenly included in correspondence to the Kazakh Hindus - the Government outlined their systematic plan to drive the Hindus off the land and liquidate the property. He also told Mr. Kulkarni of the Religious Committee head's ridiculous claims on national television that the Hare Krishna religion was an unknown sect, that it was unaccepted in India, that they were a threat to the nation of Kazakhstan, and that they had come to steal from Islam. This is the same woman who was in court last week screaming madly, 'THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION!!' All these things, Govinda Swami told Mr. Kulkarni, were designed to create a hate mentality in the minds of Kazakhstanis. He told Mr. Kulkarni that another official yelled at the Kazakhstani Hindus in court, 'You people have no rights in Kazakhstan!!', even though they are Kazakhstan nationals.

Govinda Swami also spoke about the Governments mood towards the Hindus owning land. For example, when asked why the 9th largest country in the world (Kazakhstan) couldn't spare 120 acres for this purpose, and why the Government was so intent on taking it away, one official responded, 'No! This land is sacred! It is protected by our forefathers!' Another official told Rati Manjari, 'If you'd bought land in the middle of the city no one would have cared, but because you have such beautiful land...' It should be noted that the land was a dumpsite beforehand, and in ruin. The Hindus made it beautiful themselves. Govinda Swami told Mr. Kulkarni that the Government's mood was 'confiscation with no compensation.'

Mr. Kulkarni turned out to be the 'dynamite' that this campaign has been awaiting. He encouraged us to contact all religious leaders, particularly Muslim leaders, and as many influential politicians as possible. He said he would speak to the Prime Minister, and encouraged us to pursue a meeting with him. Commenting on the common response by people that 'no Indians were involved so it's not our problem,' Mr. Kulkarni said, 'We should not extend secularism just because no Indians were involved.' He said we should ask political leaders, 'How can you stay quiet on a matter like this?' and added, 'If any other religion was involved - Christian, Muslim, whatever - they would make it out to be a huge international concern.'

He suggested ISKCON forms a broadbased platform and enlists the support of other religions to all raise their voice in protest. He insisted this was not a Hare Krishna problem, but a human rights and freedom of religion issue that concerned everyone. As the former speech writer for the Prime Minister, Mr. Kulkarni now writes for many newspapers and magazines in India. He said, 'I want to write about this myself.' He said in particular we should contact Muslim religious bodies and ask that they condemn this secularism through bodies such as the OIC (Organization of Islam Conference).

He also asked for the notes on the recent Religious Conference that was so highly publicized in Kazakhstan, and said we need to push to the public and government bodies how the Kazakh Government has completely and totally reneged on anything they had promoted up to and including the time of the conference, which attracted international religious and media attention, and was a great part of the promotional campaign Nazarbayev used to push his bid for the Chair of OSCE.

After leaving Mr. Kulkarni, we went to Parliament House, where Govinda Swami met briefly with Seetharama Yachury, MP with the Communist Party. On the way out we met with Nikhil Kumar, MP for Congress. He promised that he would have this heard in Parliament tomorrow and ask the Government to give attention to this issue.

Braja Sevaki, Indian ISKCON press secretary.