The Union and state governments must ensure that minorities and marginalised communities feel safe, an AICU statement said
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — All India Catholic Union (AICU), a prominent body representing Catholics across the country, has voiced deep concern over the growing incidents of intimidation, violence and discrimination against Christians in several states, especially those where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or its political partners are in power.
It said hate crime documentation groups have registered as many as 834 incidents of violence against the Christian community in various states last year.
“Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have become the hotspots of viral hate, brutal mob violence, rampant social ostracisation in which elements of the law and justice apparatus are complicit. Many attacks go unreported for fear of retribution in the environment of impunity and political patronage,” said the group in a statement on Saturday.
The AICU working committee at its meeting in Jharsuguda, Odisha, also extended its prayers and good wishes for the health of the ailing Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis.
It said the world needed the spiritual leadership of Pope Francis in these fraught times, where each continent is beset with existential issues impacting the people. Climate change, violence, hate crimes, concerns about artificial intelligence, and the still widening disparities between the rich and the poor, have been of great concern.
The AICU also called on the national and state governments in India to learn from the Pope and work assiduously for peace and amity. They must put an end to hate speech, targeted violence, and the coercion of religious minorities and marginalised communities, including Dalits and indigenous peoples, in various parts of North and Central India, and the Northeast.
The Union and state governments have to ensure that minorities and marginalised communities feel safe, and are reassured that the governments will act preemptively to prevent violence, it said.
The AICU expressed deep concern over the developments in Arunachal Pradesh, where an attempt is afoot to revive the Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 1978, a legislation which remained dormant for the last 47 years. “This has led to protests by the Christians of that state. They fear that once the Act is made operational, the indigenous co-existence between tribes and communities was likely to be disturbed,” said the Catholic group.
Similarly, in Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav says that his administration is planning to amend the anti-conversion law so that the conversion of girls could be made a punishable offence with the death penalty.
In Manipur, which has at last been brought under President’s Rule, concrete steps remain to be taken for the rehabilitation of over 60,000 internally displaced persons still living in makeshift non-government camps, the group said.
The AICU leadership asserted that despite this, the ordinary people of the country are not involved in hate campaigns and violence. It is for the people in authority to identify the persons, groups, or organisations involved, and see that they are brought to book, the statement said.