Chhattisgarh Christian Forum presents charter of demands to political parties before election.

Christian leaders in India’s poll-bound Chhattisgarh State have presented a charter of demands to major political parties seeking to end discrimination and violence. The charter prepared by leaders of the ecumenical Chhattisgarh Christian Forum expressed concerns over the security of the miniscule Christian community in the central state, now ruled by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

It also calls on the next government to ensure freedom to practice religion.

“We have already handed over the charter to all major political parties,” Arun Pannalal, president of the forum, told ucanews.com on Nov. 7.

The state of 25 million people, where Christians make up barely 2 percent of the population, is scheduled to elect its 90-seat legislative house in two phases on Nov. 12 and Nov. 20.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, which has ruled the state for 15 years, is aiming to prevent the Indian National Congress party, its archrival, from gaining power. The smaller Bahujan Samaj Party and Aam Aadmi Party are also in the fray.

Muslim and Christian leaders in India see danger in a pro-Hindu group’s demand that the government revoke a policy allowing minority groups to own and manage educational institutions in the country.

A report released on Oct. 10 by the Centre for Policy Analysis, a think tank of hard-line Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, stated that allowing religious minority groups to have institutions for their own people was tantamount to “compartmentalization” that works against the unity of India.

“There is no rationale for the existence of a separate wing for education of minorities such as [the] National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions in the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Aren’t such types of national level regulating bodies compartmentalizing education on religious lines and weakening the national mainstream?” asked the report.

The Centre for Policy Analysis wants the government to discontinue the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, a legal body that advises the federal and state government on issues related to minority institutions.

Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Calcutta, who chairs the Indian bishops’ office for education, said the demand goes against the provisions of the Indian constitution that allows religious minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice to help advancement of their community members. “In effect, they are asking to change the Indian constitution,” the archbishop told in ucanews.com.

Technically, the Hindu group has only asked to close down the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions. But by de facto the demand is to remove the provision to have minority institutions as the commission is the authority to grant minority status to an educational institution.

“All Indians, particularly religious minorities, should be afraid about such demands,” Archbishop D’Souza said. Some 220 million people or 18.4% of 1.2 billion Indians are officially considered part of a religious minority. Some 140 million Muslims, the largest minority, constitute 13.4% of the population, while 27 million Christians (2.3%) are the second largest minority group. Other religious minorities are Sikhs (1.9%), Buddhists (0.8%) and Parsis (0.07%) of the country’s total population.

Officials probing more than 80 Indian Christian institutions in eastern Indian Jharkhand State have recommended a federal investigation on fund diversions, which church leaders say is an attempt to project Christians as law breakers.

The state’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has recommended a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the premier agency under the federal government, the local Hindi language daily Prabhat Kabar (Morning News) reported on Oct. 17.

Since July, the state has been investigating 88 Christian organizations, including those managed by various Catholic dioceses and religious congregations such as Jesuits, Salesians and several groups of nuns. They are accused of diverting overseas donations to help win converts.

Senior CID official Ajay Kumar Singh, in a report submitted to the chief of state police, claimed irregularities in the financial transactions of these institutions and recommended an in-depth federal probe, the newspaper reported.

The CID has completed investigating 10 of the Christian organizations allegedly involved and found there were “suspicious cash transactions” involving of millions or rupees. It also found that funds were being used illegally for religious promotional activities as well as in the providing of inaccurate information to the government, the news report stated.

An Indian law, the Foreign Contributions (Regulations) Act stipulates that overseas donations must be received through a government regulated system and used strictly for defined purposes.

Audit reports must be submitted to the government annually, the law stipulates.

However, Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, secretary general of the Indian bishops’ conference, maintained that church organizations have been strictly following the law and the recommended further probe was a clear case of harassment.

Pro-Hindu tribal people have removed a cross from a Protestant Church and converted the building into their community hall in India’s Jharkhand State in a move that Christian leaders believe is linked to upcoming elections.

Some 50 tribal people took down the cross from the Vishwa Vani (voice of the world) church in Khadnga village, 25 kilometres from state capital Ranchi, on Oct. 20. They also repainted the name as Sarna Bhavan — the house of those following the traditional tribal Sarna religion. They also held a purification ceremony and prayers at the church.

“We lodged a complaint with the police on Oct. 24 after our efforts to amicably settle the issue failed,” said Pastor Emmanuel Kujur, coordinator of the Protestant group in the state.

He said tribal people in the village captured the church on grounds that it was built on tribal land. They claimed to have a government order to reclaim the land and the building but failed to produce the document, he said.

Pastor Kujur admitted there was a dispute over the land. The church was built on land donated by a tribal Christian. He and his brothers had a dispute over their property and a local magistrate ruled the land belonged to the government.

“But that does not give anyone the right to capture the church. The dispute continues between the brothers. Until it is settled, how can someone take it over?” he asked.

Bangladeshis are mourning a prominent American Catholic missionary who dedicated much of his life to the treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts in the South Asian nation.

Holy Cross Brother Ronald Drahozal passed away at a retirement and treatment facility run by his order in the U.S. State of Indiana on Oct. 16. He was 81.

Brother Drahozal had been suffering from a range of ailments for years and had been in the U.S. since March for medical treatment.

It was Brother Drahozal’s work helping thousands of Bangladeshi youth fight drug addiction that brought him national and international recognition.

Bishop Gervas Rozario of Rajshahi Diocese, the vice-president of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh, said Brother Drahozal’s death is a great loss.

Pakistani authorities have suspended the head teacher of a government school for assaulting a Christian student and abusing his mother.

Nusrat Shaheen was suspended on Oct. 22 after a complaint of discrimination against 12-year- old Sharjeel Masih by his parents.

Sharjeel, a fourth grader, was beaten and suspended for a week from the Government Boys Primary School of District Attock, Punjab province. The district education officer has launched an inquiry into the incident.

“I was just trying to turn off a running tap when the teacher grabbed me, called me churha (low caste) and asked why I had touched the tap and made it filthy. ‘This tap is not from the country of your mother,’ she said before abusing me. I had to sit outside the school for five hours,” said Sharjeel, whose father works in a military hospital as a sanitary worker.

His mother Farzana Ejaz recounted the humiliation of the incident to ucanews.com.

“I accompanied him to school the next day to apologize for any mistake committed by my son. She [Nusrat Shaheen] asked me to grab her feet for the mistake of my son and threatened that her brother, a police officer, would sell my younger daughter to a brothel,” said the mother of three.

The Delhi Minorities Commission has issued a notice to the North civic body over a circular issued by it for recital of ‘Gayatri Mantra’ in schools run by its education department. Chairman of Delhi Minorities Commission(DMC) Zafarul Islam Khan said the notice was recently issued to the education department of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC).

The education department of NDMC has been asked to explain “why a circular has been issued to its schools to make students recite Gayatri Mantra in morning assemblies.

“Is this not against our secular policy and will this not cause division in the ranks of students and teachers as many belong to minority communities who may not like to recite mantras of religious nature,” the notice asks.

NDMC authorities have defended the move, saying recital of ‘Gayatri Mantra’ at schools run by the civic body was not mandatory.

The civic body runs 765 primary schools where around 2.2 lakh students are enrolled.

Chairman of Education committee of the BJP-ruled municipal corporation, Ritu Goel said she had no information about the notice issued by the minorities panel on ‘Gayatri Mantra’ but added its recital was not mandatory.

“We have already clarified, its not mandatory in our schools,” she said.

The Assam Christian Forum has condemned the vandalism of a statue of St John Bosco kept in front of the Bishop’s House in Tezpur, the cultural capital of the north-eastern Indian state.

This is another incident of increasing intolerance in Assam and it has “put us all in anxiety,” says Allen Brooks, spokesperson of the forum.

The Catholic lay leader said that “anti-social elements” vandalized the statue on September 29 night. The statue depicted the founder of Salesian congregations with two boys, but the miscreants broke the heads of the boys and made a gaping hole in the saint’s torso.

“It is shocking that such an incident has happened in Tezpur, which is considered the cultural capital of Assam,” Brooks told Matters India on October 2.

He said a First Information Report has been registered with the police. He also expressed the Christian community’s hope that the police would book the culprits soon and restore their faith and security.

Brooks recalled a similar incident in August 2015 when the saint’s statue was desecrated in Guwahati.

Assam is currently ruled by the coalition headed by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, the political arm of Hindu radical groups. Tezpur (city of blood), some 175 km northeast of the state’s commercial hub of Guwahati, is an urban agglomeration in Sonitpur district. It is the largest of the north bank towns of Assam.

A group of young people gathered in Mumbai on October 7  to celebrate Synodgy 2018, an event to help the young people of India participate spiritually in the Synod of Bishops meeting on the youth taking place this month in Rome. “Synodgy is celebrating this Universal event on the home ground,” said Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the Archbishop of Bombay. The cardinal is in Rome for the synod and sent his remarks in a video message.

“Stay high and excited in our faith in Jesus Christ. Synodgy is here to ignite you and inspire you to work together youthfully and faithfully even as we commit to listen to you, accompany you so that you make your choices and decisions which will bring you inner contentment, reveal the beauty and meaning of life and the Christian life,” Gracias said.

The event was taking place at St. Andrew’s College in the Bandra neighborhood, a center of Catholicism in Mumbai.

The event included a video presentation consisting of interviews with young people, who spoke about the relevance of the Church today and what they would do if they were made pope for a day.