Christian leaders in India have refuted Kerala-based Cardinal George Alencherry’s claim that Christians do not feel insecure under the rule of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the country.
“Persecution against Christians has drastically increased ever since BJP came to power in the country,” said A.C. Michael, president of the Federation of Catholic Associations of Archdiocese of Delhi
Michael was responding to an interview of Card. Alencherry, the head of the Eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church based in southern Kerala state, published by The New Indian Express, an English daily, on April 9th.
The cardinal who leads more than 5 million Catholics belonging to one of 22 Eastern rite Catholic Church, reportedly said that “Christians do not have any such insecurity now,” under BJP-ruled India and also praised the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
But Michael said the cardinal was wrong. “The fact is that there are continued waves of vile hate speech and targeted violence against the Christian community across the country,” Michael told on April 10.
Michael, a former member of Delhi’s state minority commission, said the atrocities against Christians continue to rise every year since the BJP came to power in 2014.
Quoting figures of the incidents of atrocities against Christians recorded by the United Christian Forum (UCF), he said 597 cases were reported from across the country in 2022 alone.
In 2014, 127 incidents of violence against Christians were reported, which rose to 142 in 2015, 226 in 2016, 248 in 2017, 292 in 2018, 328 in 2019, 279 in 2020, 505 in 2021, and 597 in 2022, according to a UCF report.
“There have been reports of 200 incidents of violence against Christians across India in the first 100 days of 2023 itself,” Michael added.