Indian Christians denounce Hindu weekly

Christian leaders and civil rights activists in the western Indian state of Gujarat have criticised a move by the state authorities to ask schools to subscribe to a Hindu weekly.

The state government, led by the BJP party of the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, recently sent circulars to schools recommending that they buy the weekly Sadhana - seen as the mouthpiece of the Hindu nationalist organisation, Rashtrya Sevak Sangh, or RSS.

A spokesman for the United Christian Forum for Human Rights denounced the move as unconstitutional and demanded that the government withdraw the notice.

The state authorities said there had been no attempt to force the magazine on schools for non-Hindu students.

There have been a number of attacks on Christians in Gujarat in the past couple of years by members of militant Hindu organisations.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service