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Mar 19 2015 : The Economic Times (Bangalore)And Deliver Them From Evil,
PMAttacks on Christians a blot on India's imageIf a patriot like Julio
Ribeiro now finds himself a stranger in a strange land, it is the fault of the
regime in New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi might publicly deplore
attacks on Christians, but the larger RSS brotherhood is deaf to that.
According to the 2001 census numbers, Christians comprise a minuscule 2% of
India's population, whereas Hindus of various castes and denominations comprise
80%. The 2011 religion census results have not been released yet, but the
numbers are unlikely to vary much. Much of this Christian population is
concentrated in the northeastern states and in tribal areas of West Bengal,
Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Odisha. This minority can cause no
existential crisis to the Hindu majority . And it lacks the political heft that
other minorities can mobilise. These two factors make Indian Christians a soft
target for Hindutva hotheads.
In the space of weeks, at least 10 churches have been vandalised in Delhi -or
`robbed', as official versions put it. The Opposition is right to protest these
attacks on a tiny minority that, apart from evangelising, has done much to
advance liberalism, promote modern values and create education al institutions
across India. Much of the social reforms that India under took over the 18th
and 19th centuries were due to progressive intellectuals and administrators
from, and influenced by , the Christian community .
Since the BJP's ascent to power last year, the narrative of intolerance against
Christians has been ratcheted up, followed by attacks on people and
institutions. This is not random. In 1999, when the Vajpayee-led NDA was in
power, Australian missionary Graham Staines was burned to death with his two
sons in Odisha. They were helping poor leprosy patients, but the mob that
killed them would have nothing of it. Attacks on Christians have now spread to
West Bengal where the Mamata Banerjee government is busy laying the blame at
the BJP's door and or beyond the border. These attacks threaten our reputation
as a tolerant democracy . They also expose New Delhi as, if nothing else,
incompetent.
