Leading members of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other nationalist groups have filed a complaint against the administration of a Hindu temple in Tamil Nadu for allowing a group of Catholic nuns to visit the site, this according to The Hindu, one of India’s foremost daily newspapers. According to the plaintiffs, the presence of nuns in their religious attire in a Hindu place of worship hurt the religious feelings of Hindu believers and was meant to mock the temple’s sanctity.

The complaint was filed by Sethu Aravind, a member of the BJP state executive committee, and representatives of militant Hindu fundamentalist movements: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Hindu Alaya Meetpu Iyakkam and Anaithu Hindu Iyakkam.

The incident occurred on 8 May at the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam, an island in the city of Tiruchirappalli. The nuns were part of a group of tourists from Kerala. The visit sparked the fury of the radicals when their social media began spreading the rumour that the nuns had taken rosaries out of their pockets and started to pray inside the Hindu temple.

Pictures of the nuns were posted on online messaging platforms showing them walking near the Thousand Pillar Mandapam, a theatre like structure made from granite.

Following the publication of the images, some devotees criticised the temple administration and filed a complaint with the Srirangam police. “The temple of Srirangam in Tiruchirappalli is one of the temples which does not permit Christians to enter,” said Fr Sebastian Michael, adviser to the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

“Even today, in a globalised world, it is their right not to permit people from other religions. We cannot go against their belief,” he added.

“Despite this, we continue to believe in dialogue. There is a lot of good will and cooperation between religions. Many Hindu religious leaders invite us to their religious meetings and we do the same,” he noted.

The archbishop of Delhi has called for a prayer campaign until the next general election in an unprecedented political inter-vention, citing a threat to the country’s secular fabric, trigger-ing angry reactions from the ruling Hindu nationalist party.

“We are witnessing a turbulent political atmosphere which poses a threat to the democratic principles enshrined in our Constitution and the secular fabric of our nation,” Archbishop Anil Couto wrote in a letter issued this month to all parish priests and religious institutions in the archdiocese of Delhi.

The letter became public, bringing to fore tensions between Christians and Hindu nationalist hardliners who form the bedrock of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Christians constitute less than 3% of Hindu-majority India’s 1.3 billion people. India is officially secular, but four-fifths of its population profess the Hindu faith. The BJP said the letter was akin to calling people to vote along communal lines, and that it was unfortunate. The next election has to be held by next May.

The Evangelical Fellowship documented at least 351 cases of violence against Christians last year, mainly in states ruled by the BJP. Between 2014 and 2015, Couto and other Christians in the national capital region of Delhi told Singh how violence had picked up after Modi came to power, detailing at least five cases of attacks on churches in New Delhi following which extra police had been deployed to protect 240 churches in the capital. Responding to Delhi archbishop’s letter, home minister Rajnath Singh on said in India minorities are safe and no one is allowed to discriminate on the bases of caste and religion. “I have not seen are safe and no one is allowed to discriminate on the basis of caste and religion,” Singh said.

A directive for government school students in India’s Madhya Pradesh State to and with a patriotic slogan called ‘Jai Hind’ (hail India) during attendance roll calls has been criticized by Catholic Church leaders.

On May 15 the education department said the government had decided to make the slogan compulsory for government schools from the start of a new academic year in June.

“This is a misplaced idea of patriotism,” said Archbishop Leo Cornelio of Bhopal, head of the bishops’ council in the region.

The commonly used slogan Jai Hind emerged during India’s independence struggle and continues to be raised at the end of national anthem. However, Hind is a shortened form of Hindustan (land of Hindus) that excludes India’s religious minorities such as Christians and Muslims.

The central Indian state’s government, run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has exempted privately managed schools such as Church schools from the new practice.

But an official source seeking anonymity told the government exempted private schools fearing a backlash as state elections are due in December this year. The nine Catholic dioceses in the state run some 500 schools.

“But in this case, a particular ideology is promoted in the name of patriotism,” he said.

The victim’s father and wife told media that they had approached police soon after he was kidnapped but officers refused to entertain them, saying they were busy arranging security for a visit by Pinaryi Vijayan, the state’s chief minister.

Neenu named her brother Shanu Chacko and 11 people as responsible for the crime. Most gang members belong to the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), a youth wing associated with Kerala’s ruling communist alliance.

The crime comes amid allegations that Communist Party of India leaders use police to meet their ends.

However, police have arrested some DYFI members in connection with the murder.

The government is to suspend local police officers including Kottayam district police chief V.M. Mohammad Rafik.

Widespread protests have been held by Dalit Christian groups in the state recently against the discrimination they face from upper-caste Christians, commonly known as Syrian Christians because of their ancient link with the Syrian Church and its liturgy.

A Syrian Christian bishop recently rattled the community by saying that discrimination against Dalit Christians was due to the “myth” that their forefathers were upper-caste Brahmins.