President of India, Droupadi Murmu, hosted a delegation of the Catholic church that apprised her of the increased atrocities against Christians in the country in recent years.
Archbishop Mar Kuriakose Bharanikulangara of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Eparchy of Faridabad told mediapersons in New Delhi on Saturday that the President acknowledged the concerns raised by the religious minority and has assured to do everything in her powers to protect their rights.
"The Delhi NCR Christian Community had sent a memorandum. Based on that, they were invited. A delegation of five, including Archbishop Anil Couto (Delhi Archdiocese), had a fruitful dialogue with the President on the 13th of this month," said Archbishop Bharanikulangara.
He said the President had studied the memorandum and said she understood our concerns. "As they say, prevention is better than cure and that is why we initiated this dialogue with the authorities. The President has agreed to do the necessary interventions to resolve the issues faced by minorities."
'President served with Catholic nuns'
Archbishop Bharanikulangara said the President was aware of the atrocities against minorities in the country, including that of Graham Staines.
Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons (Philip, 10 and Timothy, 6) were burnt to death inside a vehicle by members of Bajrang Dal on January 23, 1999.
Moreover, the President had done "voluntary work with Catholic nuns in Odisha and Chhattisgarh. She acknowledged our services in the education and health sectors" said the Archbishop.
22,000 cases in a year
Archbishop Bharanikulangara said the church has always reached out to the authorities in the case of attacks against Christians. "All attacks against minorities violate Article 25 (concerns freedom of practice and propagation of religion). Whenever our rights have been violated we have notified the authorities", but "the number of attacks has gone up recently. In one year, 22,000 cases have been registered."
On the issue of conversion
"One of the allegations against us is that we attempt to convert by force of allurement. Several of our activities are being misinterpreted that way, but we do not do forced conversions anywhere."
Nothing political about it
The Archbishop had a wry smile on him when asked about a recent controversy triggered by Cardinal Mar George Alencherry, the head of his Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. Cardinal Alencherry, in an interview given to a daily, had claimed that the attacks on minorities had gone down under the BJP regime, which contradicts the claim of the Church in the north of the country. On the contradiction, Archbishop Bharanikulangara said: No comments.
He added that the meeting of the Christian delegation was not political. "The community had sent similar memorandums to the prime minister, the Chief Justice of India, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. We hope to continue the dialogue with the others soon."
