Agencies
NEW DELHI, MARCH 19
The head of India's Catholic bishops, speaking out after a nun was raped in the east of the country last week, has said the country should be as concerned about the welfare of its people as it is about its cows. The comments appeared directed against hardline Hindu nationalists who have stirred up animosity against India's Christian and Muslim minorities, while successfully lobbying for tougher laws against killing cows.
Cows are considered sacred by many Indians, but beef is eaten by some poor and lower-caste Hindus as well as by Christians and Muslims. Campaigns to protect cattle are often used to vilify religious minorities.
"The country has a responsibility towards all of us — every human being — and not just cows," Cardinal Baselios Cleemis told journalists. The comments, reported in newspapers on Wednesday, were confirmed by his office.
The western state of Maharashtra banned the selling of beef in February and the northern state of Haryana has since imposed stringent penalties for cow slaughter.
Cleemis spoke before visiting the hospitalized nun who was raped at a convent school in West Bengal, an attack which has triggered protests on city streets and in parliament.
Police have not established whether the assault motive was religion or money. Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said he was "deeply concerned" and demanded a detailed report into what happened.
The attack was the most serious in a series of incidents that have spread fear among Christians since activists, emboldened by Modi's election victory last year, began their "ghar wapsi" (homecoming) campaign to convert followers of "foreign religions" to Hinduism.
Indian Christians emphasize their religion's long history in India and say it is an integral part of the country. Some Hindu hardliners, however, are seeking to define the country as primarily an Hindu nation, in which other religions are guests.
Cleemis is head of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, an Indian branch of the faith that is in communion with Roman Catholicism and that traces its roots back to the Thomas the Apostle, who tradition says arrived here in the first century.
The same weekend as the convent school was attacked, activists partly demolished a church being built in the state of Haryana, near Delhi, replacing its cross with a Hindu image.
A few days before the demolition, a member of parliament for Modi's Hindu nationalist ruling party, Subramanian Swamy, was criticized for saying that churches and mosques were not sacred buildings.
Church in Nagaland calls for immediate action
The Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) has asked for ‘immediate action’ in connection with the series of attacks on Christians by booking the perpetrators.
NBCC while deploring the continued threats against Christians and other minorities in India, who are increasingly targeted by fundamental extremists in the country, said these attacks include physical and sexual assaults, brutal murders and desecration of places of worship and graveyards. The NBCC, therefore, “with deep anguish” and concern condemned the recent attacks on Christians, including the destruction of an under-construction church in Hisar and called for immediate action by the concern authorities by bringing to book the perpetrators and maintain peace and harmony.
The Council also called upon religious groups and political parties to desist from making any derogatory remarks or irresponsible statements which hurts the sentiments of minorities. This will only weaken the secular fabric of the country by creating an atmosphere of animosity among other faiths and communities, it added.
Meanwhile, the Council also expressed shock at the recent attack on churches by suicide bombers in Lahore, Pakistan where many were killed and injured. The Council strongly condemned these outrageous and heinous acts and urge upon the government in Pakistan to protect and respect the rights of all citizens, regardless of ethnicity, gender, or religion.
What stops a prime minister like Narendra Modi, who has a strong mandate, to put a full stop on attacks on Christians in India, ask community leaders in the country, adding that it sends a wrong message to the world about India.
"It seems that nobody is interested in stopping attacks on Christians in India. Prime Minister Modi has a strong mandate and he can stop it just by sending a stern message to anti-Christians," Father Savari Muthu, spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI), told IANS.
There has been a sense of unrest and anxiety among Christians after attacks on churches, schools and other community institutions across the country. The prime minister himself strongly condemned the attacks said his government would ensure the right of every citizen to "retain or adopt" any religion.
Muthu said fundamental groups are accusing Christians of "all sorts of things" and must be controlled as Christians are also Indians.
"I was shocked to read in newspapers that some Hindu fundamentalists, reacting to the nun's rape (in Nadia, West Bengal), have accused the community of sexually exploiting nuns," he said, adding that it was disgusting to make such "insensitive comments".
The comments of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat against Mother Teresa have also added to the growing unease among the community.
John Dayal, spokesperson, United Christian Forum for Human Rights, said: "The RSS has made it clear that they do not recognize Christians and Muslims as Indians."
Asked if he feels the government has made any effort to control the situation, Dayal told IANS:, "Modi has not only made no effort to control or deactivate the Sangh Parivar, which is the main force behind the campaign against Muslims and Christians, by not naming and shaming them, he is encouraging them."
Meenakshi Singh, vice president of the National Federation for Christian Unity, wondered if the rising attacks on Christians and the controversial statements by right-wing fringe element "could be a political conspiracy" against Modi the government.
"The attacks on the peace-loving community could be a political conspiracy," Meenakshi Singh told IANS.
"I wonder why Christians are being targeted ever since the BJP-led government took over last year. It was fine, barring one or two such incidents in the country, but things have gone out of control after Modi took over," she said, adding that this could also be orchestrated by elements who want to project the ruling party in a "bad light".
"You never know what is the purpose...otherwise why would anybody attack us," she asked, describing the Nadia incident was "shameful".
"It's shameful for every major political party in the country, and attacks on the community must be stopped as it sends a wrong message to the world about our country," she said.
In a recent attack, an church under construction in Haryana's Hisar town was vandalized by a right-wing group. In the shocking incident in Nadia, a 71-year-old nun of a Rangaghat convent school was raped by one of a group of seven dacoits on March 14.
Chandigarh-based Bishop Younas Massey said that "persecution of Christians must be done away with as it unnecessarily vitiates the atmosphere".
"Nationality cannot be determined on the basis of religion. The attackers are not only harming the Christians but creating a serious constitutional crisis," Massey told IANS, and urged the central government to nab the culprits at the earliest.
Bishop P.P. Marandih of the Patna diocese said that attacks on Christians in India was a clear cut case of the "strong attacking the weak".
"It's like jungle rule; there you have the weak being killed by the strong. I think it's the same thing going on here," Marandih told IANS and hoped that "everything will be normal soon as it was all senseless".
