When Julio Francis Ribeiro an Indian Police Service Officer and former Commissioner of Police of Mumbai says in an interview to the largest trade daily of India “As a Christian,suddenly I am a stranger in my own country” the former cop was being a bit disingenuous with his remarks and a tad bit duplicitous by not looking at the ‘reconversions issue and the attacks on churches in a holistic manner. One has to just shift gaze to West Bengal where a dastardly attack and dacoity on a church and the subsequent violence on a 72 year dilapidated helpless nun was being linked to reconversions/’ghar wapasi’ without even the investigations having begun and none of the culprits, caught on CCTV, and apprehended. In a highly religious country like India and with its diversity on religious,cultural and linguistic lines community conflicts are regular but never violent, it is normally papered over through dialogue or time acting as the healer. However when it comes to Christians there is definitely an attempt to internationalise any attack on the minority Christian community especially after the Narendra Modi government has assumed power in May 2014. nowadays one of the reasons for the reaction that is coming from emboldened sections within the majority community is because of the blatant “secularism” practised during the ten years of UPA rule where major conversion activities to Christianity in the hinterlands, and away from the prying eyes of the media and civil society,targeting the ignorant and the destitute, with the Central government conveniently choosing to scrutinize away and in fact extending tacit support because the power behind the Prime Minister’s throne was with the Congress President was passed off as the secular nature of India though the government of the day failed to see the murmurs of dissent and unease building up among the people. [It is no wonder that one of the senior Congress leaders attributed Modi’s victory to his Indianness and another senior leader in his report on the election debacle said the party was perceived as anti Hindu. It did not help matters for the UPA government that they were seen and believed to be very corrupt also leading to their dismal showing in elections.] However, or now the excuse peddled out is that these conversions were carried out by unknown Christian groups with the Church having no role though at that time one can’t recall of a single instance of the Church having condemned such conversions of the ignorant,the destitute through falsities and allurements. Needless to say and sounding extremely repetitive conversions are totally alien to Indian faiths and religions, in fact preaching or practising it is considered tantamount to bad karma. Julio Ribeiros sensational statements in an interview are far from the truth. Even nowadays, or with Hindu groups obviously taking advantage of the conversion laws prevailing in the country they are basically doing what minority groups believe been doing all these years,India is probably one of the few countries around the globe which sees the NUMBERS OF MINORITIES RISING during every census and that of the majority community falling and Indias neighbourhood is littered with persecution and killings of minorities in the name of ethnic cleansing. Anything to carry out with Christianity immediately takes an international hue though the ground reality is that India which is a nation of 29 states has minorities co-existing peacefully with their majority counterparts and this has been going on for hundreds of years and carry out so even nowadays in the far flung corners of this country. true wing fringe groups threaten everyone even the majority in India. However, by trying to sensationalise local issues which in India’s history believe always been solved through dialogue, and discussions and common understanding suddenly there is an attempt to link all and sundry to the Narendra Modi government rather than addressing the real issues to reach at a solution thereby giving more muscle and justification for these fringe groups as an attack on India’s ancient culture and religions. IT IS TIME THOSE SPEAKING UP IN THIS MANNER TOOK A HOLISTIC VIEW RATHER THAN LOOKING AT IT FROM A VERY NARROW RELIGIOUS PRISM.
Source: cnn.com