23 incidents of violence against Christians occurred in the last seven days of 2023
– Abdul Bari Masoud
New Delhi, Jan. 5: Prominent Christian leaders have launched an online signature campaign against Church Leaders who praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a Christmas gathering held at the PM official residence on December 25.
The campaign launched by Dr. Prakash Louise, Fr. Cedric Prakash, Dr. John Dayal, MC Michael and others said all of them from the Christian community have been disturbed with the Christmas gathering called by the PM, the participation of ‘so-called leaders’ and their praise of Modi, especially their silence on the incidents of violence against Christians across India.
They underlined that since the advent of the Modi government at the Centre in May 2014, incidents of violence against Christians have seen sharply increasing.
There were 147 incidents of violence against Christians in 2014, 177 in 2015, 208 in 2016, 240 in 2017, 292 in 2018, 328 in 2019, 279 in 2020, 505 in 2021, 599 in 2022 and 720 in 2023.
AC Michael, National Coordinator, United Christian Forum (UCF) said if the number of incidents of violence against Christians in India was on average two incidents per day before Christmas, it became three incidents per day from the day of Christmas gathering at PM’s residence when our respected leaders were taking selfies and dining with the PM.
He said UCF helpline number 1-800-208-4545 received reports of 23 incidents of violence against Christians from the last seven days of 2023!
Ten incidents in Uttar Pradesh followed by 3 each in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Punjab and one each in Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
In total the final count ended with 720 incidents of violence against Christians in India in 2023.
On the very day, 25th December 2023, when Church leaders were lunching at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg, five pastors Rakesh, Arun, Ram, Ramkishore and Ashok were arrested for conducting worship service and celebrating Christmas, he said.
On the same day, three others were arrested in Uttar Pradesh under Freedom of Religion Act (FORA). A burial was denied in Chhattisgarh. In Karnataka a Pastor was physically assaulted and a family was excommunicated, denied rations and faced threats from villagers. In Punjab a lady pastor was stopped from conducting Church service and threatened and abused. In Andhra Pradesh, a mob attacked and physically assaulted a Church service in Visakhapatnam district. In the national capital, a pastor was forcefully stopped from a Christmas prayer meeting.
In the signature campaign, they prepared a one-page document for the perusal of the conscious members of Christian community and asked them to sign and circulate if they felt comfortable.
They planned to release it to the media after getting 200 to 300 signatures.
