Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore has condemned the continuous harassment on the Christian Missionaries in the state and questioned the wisdom behind conducting a survey on their presence and activities in Karnataka.
The Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare Department in Karnataka has ordered the officers to conduct a survey of both official and non-official Christian missionaries in the southern Indian state, following a discussion on Christian conversions in the state on October 13.
“Why is the government interested in making survey of the religious personnel and places of worship only of Christian community?” asked the Bishop in a statement issued October 15.
Instead, “let the government take the count of education institutions and health centers run by the Christian missionaries, which will give a fare idea of the service that is rendered by the Christian community to the nation building and how many people are converted in these places and institutions,” he challenged.
“We consider this exercise as futile and unnecessary. There is no good that will come out of it,” stated the archbishop. In fact, in the background of the conversion boggy and anti-religious feelings that are being whipped up, it is dangerous to make such surveys, he added.