An open letter to Cardinal Baselios Cleemis President of CBCI

Respected Cardinal Baselios Cleemis,

About a week ago, I read a news report that a group of Christian priests and seminarians were attacked by Bhajrang Dal members (also called Right wing Fringe Group by the seculars) for forcing a Hindu youth to convert to Christianity by offering Rs.5000/- in cash as enticement.

The entire media reported the attacks and burning of the car used by the priests as a proven and definitive news, while the incident of forced conversion was nuanced and reported only as an "alleged conversion"!

(http://indianexpress.com/article/india/country-being-divided-losing-faith-in-govt-catholic-body-4993755/)

But, today, I was shocked to read in the Indian Express your interview to Liz Mathew, its correspondent, wherein you have accused Hindus of polarising the country on religious lines. You have, rather disingenuously, also equated the media report of “attacks on priests and seminarians in Satna” with “Attacks on priests and seminaries in Satna”!

I have tried to find at least one report where attacks on seminaries is mentioned, but couldn’t. How can an attack on seminarians mean the same thing as an attack on seminaries, which is indeed a very serious matter?

You have also alleged that the culprits are NOT arrested even while the state government has arrested “innocent priests”, both of which are not factually correct.

Besides the accusations of religious persecution, your interview has strong political overtones. Outlook Magazine headlined the interview thus: “Indian Christians Are Losing Faith in Modi Government, Says Top Catholic Body”.

The entire interview is on the same lines as the leaked letter written a few days ago by Gujarat Archbishop, Thomas Macwan, seeking prayers in churches throughout India to elect a ‘humane leader’ and against ‘nationalist forces’.

In this letter he had asked “nationalist forces” to be defeated in the ensuing state elections. And the Election Commission was forced to reprimand him for violating the “model code of conduct” by trying to polarise voters on religious lines!

In the said letter Archbishop Macwan had said, “Nationalist forces are on the verge of taking over the country. There is a growing sense of insecurity among minorities, OBCs, BCs, poor, etc. The election results of Gujarat state assembly can make a difference.”

Coming as it does after the widely publicised Macwan letter, your interview to The Indian Express, besides showing remarkable convergence of views, points to a developing pattern to malign India as an intolerant country, where minorities, particularly Christians and their seminaries/churches are under organised attacks by Hindus. Needless to say, these two events, meant for international consumption, might surely have achieved the target without much loss of time!!

Even the otherwise Christian-friendly NDTV had this to say: “The Archbishop of Gandhinagar Thomas Macwan, has in a letter all but made a vote appeal without naming any political party or leader, but pointedly saying, “Nationalist forces are on the verge of taking over the country. The elections of Gujarat State Assembly can make a difference!” It is seen as a reference to the state’s ruling party, the BJP. The Archbishop has said that his letter wasn’t meant for the public and was “merely an appeal to pray.”

(https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/save-country-from-nationalist-forces-gujarat-archbishops-election-letter-1779261)

It is worthwhile to recall here that immediately after the BJP government led by Narendra Modi came to power in India in May 2014, the entire secular media widely reported “attacks on churches”, which caused an international outcry and anger against the Hindus of India, even forcing the Pope and the US President to react strongly in condemnation and come out with gratuitous advice. In the end the church attacks were proved to be just a couple of isolated instances of stone throwing.

This also brings back scary memories of the “Gang Rape of a White Nun” in Birbhum in West Bengal around the same time. The nun was widely reported in the media as having been gang raped by Hindu fundamentalists. The heinous crime, which was later investigated by the police, was committed by a group of Bangladeshi Muslims, who were arrested by the Punjab police!

These so called attacks on minority communities were added reasons for the secular intellectuals and Left liberals of India to resort to “award waapsi” in an internationally concerted action to paint the Modi government as a Hindu fundamentalist, intolerant group of bigoted Hindus out to destroy the delicate secular fabric so assiduously woven by the previous Congress and other secular governments.

It is a different matter that the Indian nation saw through these machinations and the bluff was easily called.

There is also an attempt, again an internationally concerted one, to get even with the National government in the matter of blacklisting of thousands of Christian and Muslim NGOs, which were hitherto getting abundant funds, that too without any kind of restrictions from rich institutional donors like the American Church, Greenpeace, Ford Foundation etc. for carrying on religious conversion and also to undermine the Indian cultural and social ethos.

Undeniably, the tightening of the flow of money into the accounts of these NGOs has caused unbearable hardship and embarrassing inconvenience to the organised industry of proselytisation.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) is the apex decision making body of the Catholic Church in the country and as such carries enormous influence and power at least on its followers and some of the secular political parties like the Congress party. Therefore, in matters like religious discord and hurting the religious sentiments of the majority community, what you utter will determine the course of the relations between Hindus and Christians.

Therefore, Respected Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Sir, as the head of a powerful organisation of minority Christians, you should give a pause to this attempt to show the Indian government in a bad light. You would also do well to deeply ruminate over the role of the overzealous missionaries, for whom adding numbers to the flock is the only thing that matters, which is at the root of the deep sense of unease prevailing in the mind of the majority community. Protecting and nurturing the five thousand year old secular ethos of India is the responsibility of every section of Indian society, regardless of religious connotations.

I hope and pray you will give my letter all the serious consideration it deserves.

B V Shenoy