The Catholic Church in the western Indian state of Gujarat state has sought police protection after one of its schools faced a ruckus by a right wing Hindu mob.
“We request you to take necessary action against such unruly elements and grant us police protection so that no untoward situation occurs in our premises or to any member of our institution,” Father Teles Fernandes, secretary of the Gujarat Education Board of Catholic Institutions, wrote to state Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel.
The February 20 letter also urged him to provide protection to St. Mary’s Higher Secondary School in Amreli, some 245 km southwest of Ahmedabad, the state’s commercial capital.
The mob on February 20 insisted installing the pictures of Hindu deities in classrooms and the principal’s office.
School principal Father Binu Kunnel told Matters India on February 22, “The crowd spent the whole day in the school campus insisting on their demand, however, did not unleash any violence.”
The principal also added that the ruckus seemed to be part of a planned operation to tarnish the school’s image.
Father Fernandes’ letter said the “unruly large group” comprised members of the vishwa Hindu Parishad (world Hindu council) and Bajrang Dal (Brigade of Lord Hanuman).

A Catholic social worker, who has campaigned against substance abuse for three decades, on February 15 received the first “Life Time Achievement award” instituted by a Jain center in Karnataka.
Dharmasthala conferred the award on Thomas Scaria, who heads the Ecolink Institute of Well-being, for his outstanding contributions to prevent and manage substance abuse.
Karnataka Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot gave away the award at a function at Dharmasthala, some 75 km east of Mangaluru, a port town in the southern Indian state. It comprises a citation, memento and a cash award of 25,000 rupees.
Veerendra Heggade, the Dharmadhikari (head) of Dharmasthala who instituted the award, pointed out that Scaria was the first recipient of the award. He congratulated the winner for his contributions to the community management of addiction and capacity building of the work force.
Scaria, who is also a senior journalist, has spent three decades in campaigning against drugs and alcoholism and training hundreds of addiction professionals globally.
The governor, a former federal minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, underlined the need for more committed people to work among drug users and alcohol dependents. “Substance Use Disorder is growing day by day, and only a movement can curb its growth,” he asserted.
Scaria started his mission on drug prevention in 1991 by initiating a students’ movement against addiction called Link Anti Addiction Action Group and later co-founding the Link Rehabilitation Center, where he served as its director for 20 years.
He joined Colombo Plan in 2010 and coordinated several projects in addiction management and capacity building in more than 25 countries for almost 10 years before returning to India.
Currently, he is engaged in training addiction professionals from nearly 20 countries as the approved training provider of the Colombo Plan and as a global trainer under the UNODC.

Several thousand voters belonging to religious minorities such as Christians and Muslims have been allegedly removed from electoral rolls in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, say Catholic leaders.
The state, where the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) runs the government, is headed for polls in May and Christian leaders suspect deleting minority voters could be a strategy to retain power.
A delegation from Bangalore archdiocese on Feb. 15 submitted a memorandum to the state’s chief electoral officer (CEO) saying a total of 9,195 voters’ names were removed from electoral rolls of the Shivajinagar constituency in the state capital, Bengaluru.
At least Some 8,000 names were of Christians and Muslims, the memorandum said.
“We fear that [voters lists for] many constituencies across Bengaluru city could have tampered with impunity. If such mischief is allowed to carry on unchecked, the confidence of the people in the electoral process will be destroyed beyond measure,” J. A. Kanthraj, public relations officer of the Archdiocese of Bangalore, told UCA News.

A Protestant bishop was remanded in judicial custody in connection with an alleged case of religious conversion in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
The family members of Auxiliary Bishop Paul Muniya of the Shalom Church in Jhabua district have denied the allegation and asserted that the prelate was charged with a fake conversion case.
A local court remanded Bishop Muniya in judicial custody on February 23 after he surrendered to the police more than a month after the case was registered against him.
He surrendered in compliance with an order from the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, the top court in the state.
One Kailash Bhuria, a local resident, on January 11 filed a police complaint alleging that Bishop Muniya and Tita Bhuria, an elderly church member, in September 2022 invited him to a church and sprinkled some water on him and gave him a copy of the Bible and a cross.
When he refused to attend church services subsequently they threatened him. He also sought police protection and action against the bishop and the community member.
Kaleb Muniya, the prelate’s son, said his father was accused of violating the provisions of the state’s stringent anti-conversion law.
The police arrested and sent Tita Bhuria to jail soon after the complaint was filed on January 11.

In the wake of State Elections this month in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya, Chri-stian leaders from different parts of Assam and North East region calls on citizens in the region to remain alert on threats to the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution of India and safeguards ensured therein to the people.
A meeting was held in Guwahati last on February 17 with a commitment to solidarity with one another and those who are discriminated against.
In the meeting, the leaders took note of incidents against Christians in the country which include hate-speeches, humiliation and violence targeting individuals and groups, destruction and desecration of property and places of worship.
“Brutality and crime like the murder of Graham Staines in Odisha more than 20 years ago, barbaric abuses of human rights against Christian communities in Kandhamal in 2008 and many innumerable more in different parts of the country especially in States where the ruling dispensation remain consensually silent against the perpetrators of these acts,” a press statement reads.
The Christian leaders also claimed that since the last few years atrocities against Christians and Churches have increased in numbers and intensity with many more cases going unreported, and the recent incidents in this region with the “authorised census” targeting Christian individuals, families and groups in Assam.
“In the guise of clearing encroachments on the forests, worship places are destroyed, eviction and displacement of Boro families and communities who are indigenous settlers have taken place and the majority of the members are Christians. Meanwhile, what cannot go unnoticed is that hundreds of acres of tribal land and resources are being handed over to persons and groups alien to the region which is an effort towards the economic exploitation of our region, especially the land and assets of the weaker communities by the dominating groups who are trying to gain control and power in targeted locations. A fear is being expressed about the sinister threat of removing the ST status from Tribal Christians and others which will effectively take away the constitutional rights and status of the indigenous citizen of the land,” the statement added.