Church leadership flays Centre's silence on targeted attacks on Christian community

Thiruvananthapuram: The arrest of a group of Christian priests, including a Malayali, at Nagpur, accusing them of forced conversion has triggered strong protest from the church and political leaderships in Kerala.

The Church of South India (CSI) leadership accused that the silence of the Centre over the targeted attacks on the Christian community was supporting the perpetrators.

While Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan accused the Sangh Parivar of targeting minorities, Opposition leader V D Satheesan wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis seeking urgent intervention.

Sudhir, a priest of the CSI South Kerala Diocese, and his wife Jasmine were among those arrested on Tuesday evening on the basis of complaint by Bajrang Dal activists. Sudhir, who is a native of Thiruvananthapuram, was working with the Nagpur mission over the last five years.   

After being released on bail on Wednesday, Sudhir told the media in Nagpur that they had gone to the place for a birthday celebration and the allegations of conversion were baseless.

"Since it was the Christmas season some Christmas songs were sung. How can it be considered as a religious conversion?," he asked.

The CSI Bishops' Council in Kerala strongly flayed the incident.

"The silence of the political leadership and the government over the targeted attack against the Christian community was giving a positive message and indirect support to those unleashing the attack. We had expressed this concern at a meeting convened by Vice President C P Radhakrishnan the other day. Unfortunately the fresh incident happened a day after it," Council Secretary, Sabu Malayil Koshy, said.

Denying the allegation that the priests were involved in conversion, Koshy said that the mission was actively undertaking literacy and health and hygiene programmes in Nagpur for more than ten years.

Pinarayi Vijayan reacted that it was deeply disturbing that a Malayali Christian priest, his family and aides were arrested in Nagpur on allegations of forced conversion. "This follows a worrying pattern followed by Sangh Parivar of targeting minorities to fuel polarisation, as seen earlier in Jabalpur. Such actions undermine constitutional freedoms," he said.

Satheesan said in the letter that the incident raises serious concerns about the violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India, particularly the freedom to profess, practice, and propagate religion. Arresting individuals for conducting a peaceful prayer meeting is unconstitutional and contrary to the spirit of our democratic and secular values, he said.