The Archbishop of Bangalore decried on March 4 the removal of a statue of Christ from a Christian cemetery. The statue was taken down after complaints from non-local Hindus.

“It is very sad, unfortunate and regrettable that the police, bowing to the pressure of a few outsiders, have forcefully removed the statue of Lord Jesus,” Archbishop Peter Machado wrote on March 4 at AsiaNews.

“It is a blow to the communal harmony of the people in our villages and also violation of the religious freedom guaranteed to us by the Indian Constitution.”

The 12 foot tall statue was taken down on March 3 from Mahima Betta cemetery in Doddasagarahalli, more than 30 miles north of Bangalore in India’s Karnataka State.

India’s ruling political party, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, has been increasingly hostile to religious freedom for minorities. The BJP also controls the government of Karnataka.

According to Archbishop Machado, Christians have been making devotions at the cemetery “for the last 30 to 40 years with-out any difficulty,” and “there is absolutely no problem from local people to our burials, nor our prayers and devotions on the hill.”

He noted that for the past week or so “some people from outside have been creating tens-ions by spreading wrong rumors that the place is used for con-version, which is completely far from the truth.”

“The local villagers have publicly said that the presence of Christians and their prayers are absolutely no problem for them and, this being the case, why should some outsiders come and disturb the harmony of the village,” the archbishop asked.