I complete 50 years as a priest today, April 14. I started off my priestly life celebrating with glow at least three Masses in as many places on Sundays.

But my life’s main mission is living and sharing life with Indigenous Adivasi People. I accompany them in their struggles against forcible unjust displacement, deprival of their rights over their natural resources, and denial of their due share in the rich dug out literally from beneath their feet. And to add insult to injury, when they stood up to protest against injustice meted out to them, they were thrown into jails in umpteen numbers.

Started asking myself what ‘priesthood’ would mean in this heart-rending reality.

Was reminded of what an eminent liberation theologian said: “What is offered in most of our churches and by most of our priests is the ritual of the Mass, but it is not the sacrifice of Jesus.”

What would his sacrifice mean if not his whole life was a life that brought him to his death, killed by the powers that be for he stood up against oppression of the poor and the weak?

I then decided to take on the oppressive but mighty State, filed a case on behalf of the thousands of under-trial prisoners, most of whom, everybody knows, are innocent. It was then the State decided to put me out of the way. Multiple cases filed against me, cases as serious as ‘sedition,’ not a small solace to remind oneself that Jesus was also accused of ‘sedition’ and paid the supreme sacrifice of his life.

Arrest-warrant was issued on me; I was declared an ‘absconder,’ my work-cum-living premise raided three times (August 2018 – October 2019), and all my personal belongings (computer to mattress and pillow) confiscated. I now have only three things I can call my own: my body, my mind, my conscience. If I was not a Jesuit, would be literally on the street. Life is now with uncertainties, like a swinging pendulum. In one case, ‘arrest warrant’ is still live; can be activated anytime but for the change in political regime.

In the second case, I can be ‘promoted’ from being a ‘suspect’ to ‘accused’ and thrown behind bars. But one thing certain, I feel privileged to walking the Way of the Cross with Jesus and our people being crucified. Earnestly hoping that I will share his death, a death that brought life, a new life, the life of the Resurrection.

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, head of the Catholic Church in India, on March 20 urged his people to cooperate wholeheartedly with the people’s curfew called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to contain coronavirus epidemic. Cardinal Gracias lauded the prime minister’s public appeal to India’s more than 1.3 billion people to observe a self-imposed curfew on March 22.

“Last evening the prime minister made an appeal to all of us to stay at home on Sunday March 22 in a self-imposed curfew. It is evident that the deadly coronavirus is spreading posing an extremely danger to all,” Cardinal said in a video message circulated through YouTube channel and the Bombay archdiocese’s website.

The cardinal said he has decided to heed the premier’s call and cancel all public Masses in the archdiocese of Mumbai from March 20 to April 4, “in the larger interest of safety of our people which is truly paramount.”

On March 19 at 8 pm, the prime minister appealed Indians to observe the “Janata curfew” (people’s curfew) as a test run for social distancing over the next few days to fight the spread of coronavirus. As part of the self-curfew, Modi said everyone must stay home from 7 am to 9 pm that day and abide by it.

The premier also cautioned citizens against hoarding and panic-buying, assuring that there would be no shortage of essentials like milk, medicines and food.

Vikramjit Kakati, who serves as Associate Professor (Mechanical Engg) at Don Bosco University of Guwahati has been selected as one of the mentors in a Canada-based international panel to fight coronavirus pandemic.

Montreal General Hospital Foundation, Canada, has launched a global Initiative to design a low-cost, simple, easy-to-use and easy-to-build ventilator that can serve the COVID-19 patients, in an emergency timeframe.

This has been supported by Canada’s National Research Council, providing expert support in rapid fabrication and manufacturability.

Dassault Systèmes, providing complimentary access to their 3D experience platform as well as complimentary licenses to Solid Works to contestants.
Fasken Law Firm has been providing legal, compliance, and organizational support.

Globally this challenge is known as Code Life Ventilator Challenge.

There are more than 650 teams signing up, with over 1,800 participants from around the world.

A Catholic school in Delhi is feeding migrants, destitute, and elderly caught in the in nationwide lockdown to contain coronavirus.

It all started with a desperate Whatsapp call Father Savariraj, the principal of Rosary School at Narela in North Delhi district, received on March 30.

The priest immediately convened a meeting of the school’s teaching staff on Zoom app and appealed them to donate rations.

“They responded positively, generously and willingly,” the priest says.

Meanwhile, Father Savariraj approached the Station House Office of the local police station to seek permission to distribute the groceries. The SHO gave a written permission.

Father Savariraj with Pratap, a staff, on April 3 distributed food to scores people, including residents of Philomena Paradise, an old age home on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border.

“We see hundred thousands of migrants staying under flyovers during the lockdown,” Father Savariraj says.

A national body of women belonging to various Christian denominations has expressed shock and outrage over the spraying of disinfectant on migrant laborers.

“Even as the whole country is battling an intense and grueling confrontation with the Corona crisis, we the members of want to express our deep shock and horror at the treatment being meted out to hapless migrant workers who were today,” says a March 30 statement from the Indian Christian Women’s Movement.

Footage on the same day showed a group of migrant workers sitting on a street in Bareilly, a district in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, as health officials in protective suits used hosepipes to douse them in disinfectant, prompting anger on social media.

Catholic bishops of Ranchi, eastern India, have appealed their fellow prelates to reach out to millions of migrant laborers stranded in the country by the 21-day national lockdown.

“These are difficult times and even as we live in lockdown and make every attempt to keep ourselves safe, thousands of migrants are stuck where they are, not knowing where to go or have hit the road with their families and children without transport, monetary means or alimentary provisions,” says the March 28 appeal from Jesuit Archbishop Felix Toppo of Ranchi and Auxiliary Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at 8 pm on March 24 ordered the nationwide lockdown from the midnight of that day as way to prevent spread of the Covid-19. It limits the movement of the country’s 1.37 billion people for 21 days.

The lockdown was preceded by a 14-hour voluntary public curfew on March 22.

Archbishop Felix Toppo The lockdown has caught millions of migrants and daily wagers off guard, leaving them no time to return home. Hundreds of thousands of them are now seen stranded at bus or railway stations or walking to their villages hundreds of kilometers away.

The bishops of Ranchi, who made the appeal a day after Pope Francis conducted “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city [of Rome] and to the world), the most solemn prayer in the Catholic Church.

India’s more than 115,000 Catholic religious men and women have been urged to reach out to the poor affected by a 21-day national lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We need to move fast. This is an emergency,” says Father Joe Mannath, national secretary of the Conference of Religious India (CRI), the association of the major superiors.

In a March 29 letter to the heads of more than 550 congregations for men and women serving India, the Salesian priest says they should not wait for “perfect or easier” way to help hundreds of thousands poor migrant laborers stranded by the lockdown at various parts of the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the lockdown at 8 pm on March 24, just four hours before it was imposed all over the country, taking millions of migrant workers off guard.

Father Joe Mannath says the migrant workers, who now struggle to get back to their home states, urgently require provide shelter and food.

“God waits for our response. He is suffering in our suffering brothers and sisters,” says the CRI official’s letter that lists of a set of “dos” and “don’ts” for the religious to follow to protect from the highly contagious virus.

As on March 29, the coronavirus affected a total of 1,024 people across India. A federal Home Ministry statement said the epidemic has also claimed 27 lives so far.

The Delhi riots of Feb. 23-27 provide harrowingly detailed narratives of the horrors of what Hindu sectarian politics has done to India, the world’s largest democracy, over the last seven decades.

After the riots in individual pockets of the capital, one could find Hindus and Muslims sharing food, echoing sentiments of brotherhood and harmony. But as one steps into northeast Delhi, the hub of the riots, the ugly face of the Hindu-Muslim divide is palpable.

Even on Feb. 29, when police said the riots were over, mobs were still shouting “Hinduon ka Hindustan” (India belongs to Hindus). In a violence-hit area, a Hindu shopkeeper was more vocal. “They have seen Hindus are not meek,” he said.

The riots provided a new but controversial slogan: “Desh ke gaddaro ko, Goli Maro salon ko” (Shoot down the traitors of the nation). The word “traitor” has somehow become synonymous with people who publicly oppose the idea of a Hindu nation and policies geared to that end. By extension, it came to mean Muslims. The slogan, publicly and brazenly, is a call to shoot down Muslims.

The Delhi riots have some ironic links to the February 2002 riots in Gujarat which killed some 2,000 people, mostly Muslims. Comparatively, the 46 deaths in Delhi could be regarded as insignificant, but the recent violence shows the definitive and advancing march toward a Hindu nation, a journey that began to take graphic shape 18 years ago in Gujarat.

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.