Muslim and Christian leaders in India have slammed Madhya Pradesh State government for according “minister of State” status to five Hindu religious leaders in what many called a deadly mix of religion and politics in an election year.

The central state’s government, run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), gave minister status to the leaders even though they have not contested or won any election.

The move has snowballed into a controversy as it violates provisions of India’s constitution, which expressly upholds secular and democratic values. The constitution does not support unelected people, particularly religious leaders, being appointed to ministerial positions with a paid salary.

Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan told journalists on April 4, two days after the order was issued, that his government has been making “attempts to bring different sections of society to work for the people.”

“We want every section of society to work toward the development and welfare of people, and that is why we have attempted to bring together each section of society,” he added.

The new status allows the five Hindu leaders to get salaries and other perks similar to those of a junior minister who is elected to the legislative house. They would also have a greater say in administrative matters in the government.

“This news shocked me. I do not know where our country is heading,” said Bishop Gerald Almeida of Jabalpur.

When religious leaders begin to assume government offices and assert themselves in the running of a democratic state, “it is a clear sign that the secular state is on the path of collapse,” the bishop told ucanews.com on April 5.

The policy of separation of state and religion continues to be respected across the globe because history is filled with disasters when they were mixed, he said. When “politics is mixed with religion, it is a deadly combination for any nation,” he asserted.

One of the five appointed religious leaders is Namdeo Das Tyagi, popularly known as “Computer Baba” because of his interest in electronic gadgets and technology. The others are Bhaiyyuji Maharaj, Narmadanandji, Hariharanandji and Yogendra Mahant.

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A delegation of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of India (CBCI) on April 7 visited the affected areas in Odisha’s Sundargarh where Marian statues were vandalised on Easter.

On April 1, during the late night of Easter Sunday, few “anti- social” elements vandalised a grotto outside the compound of St Thomas Church, Salangabahal, and mutilated the statues of Mother Mary and baby Jesus in the grotto. Marian statue in another grotto in Gyanpali village too was smashed and the goons attempted to burn the Church of the Victory of the Cross in Bihabandh, the Diocese of Rourkela.

To make the situation graver, theheadofastatueofabullofa Shiva Temple in the vicinity was also found chopped off.

The bishops’ delegation included Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, CBCI Secretary General, Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, the Regional Chairman of the Odisha Catholic Bishops’ Council, Bishop Kishor Kumar Kujur of Rourkela, Bishop Telesphore Bilung, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Arch- diocese of Ranchi, and Emeritus Bishop Alphonse Bilung of Rourkela.

The church did not link the incident with any of the radical groups or Hindutva groups as such. However, it has accused the state of showing apathy in dealing with such cases.

“It appears that the anti-social elements targeted the holy places of two communities seeking to create a communal divide,” it reads further.

Yoga gurus, including a Catholic nun who runs two yoga centres, say the Syro Malabar Catholic Church’s position on Yoga is driven by its “ignorance” and that yoga is “a way of life as well as sciencem,” and it is not a “subdivision of any religion.”

The Syro-Malabar Church’s doctrinal commission report recently said that Yoga was not a medium to attain divine experience.

Meanwhile, Syro Malabar Church spokesman Fr Jimmy Poochakkatt has clarified that the Church is not in any way rejecting yoga as an exercise for mental and physical health.

Sr Infant Tresa, a Catholic nun and a yoga master, says the Syro Malabar Church’s observa- tion on yoga is due to its lack of knowledge on the subject. Sr Tresa runs Nirmala Medical Yoga Centre in Muvattupuzha.

A report by Pala Bishop Joseph Kallarangattu, chairman of the Doctrinal Commission of the Church, which was uploaded on the website of the Eparchy of Mananthavady, said the theology of yoga does not go along with the beliefs of Christianity.

“As far as I know, the Church has not accepted the report. There are even bishops who practise yoga. The report by the Doctrinal Commission of the Church is mainly due to its lack of know- ledge of yoga. I don’t think those who prepared the report have practised yoga even for a week,” she says.

Sister Jocelyn Edathil of the Sisters of the Imitation of Christ (Bethany Sisters) is unique in at least two ways. First of all, she is a member of the India-based Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and on Aug. 6, 2016, when she took her vows at St Vincent De Paul Syro-Malankara Catholic Cathedral in Elmont, New York she became the first professed woman religious of her Church who was born in North America.

She also has the unusual distinction of being a hospitalist, a practicing doctor on staff at Philadelphia’s Temple University Hospital.

There, working in shifts seven days on, seven days off, she wears her veil and the traditional white habit of her congregation under a white lab coat while making her rounds, lovingly caring for the corporal needs of the sick.

And yes, if they wish, she will pray with them and give them spiritual comfort. For Sister Jocelyn, her twin vocations are a blessing. At age 37, it has been a long journey. Her mother, Rajamma Edathil, came to America from Kerala in 1975 and is now a retired ICU nurse. Her dad, Philip Edathil, arrived in 1977 and is a real estate broker. The second of four children, her younger brother, Michael, who was ordained in 2013, is the first American-born Syro-Malankara priest. But the seed of Sister Jocelyn’s own vocation goes back almost three decades. When she was 9 her uncle, Father George, an India-born priest, told her she should become a sister.

“I said I wasn’t good enough,” Sister Jocelyn recalls. “He passed away in 1996, and that was solidified my vocation, thinking about his as a life well-lived.” “I always loved science,” she said. “I think of it as the way the Lord communicates his message to us. My parents encouraged me to study medicine, but I didn’t do it at first.”

A husband washes his wife’s feet as part of a special ritual organised by the Kerala State unit of the Indian Christian Women’s Movement (ICWM) on March 28, 2018, one day before Maundy Thursday. The ICWM works to promote the equality of both genders and all castes, among other agendas.

Amid fears of possible adverse consequences, the Kerala State unit of the Indian Christian Women’s Movement (ICWM) organized foot-washing rituals on March 28, 2018, the day before Maundy Thursday. The idea was to promote the equality of both genders and all castes.