An Ursuline Franciscan nun has been appointed by Mysuru District Legal Service Authority as panel advocate for free legal aid clinic. Sr Jenifer Pinto of the congregation’s of Mysuru Province will provide as a free legal advisor in the Taluk office at Mysuru, a city in south-western Indian State of Karnataka.
She is the first person to be appointed as a free legal adviser in the newly started Free Legal Aid Clinic of Mysore Taluk.
Sister Pinto is a practicing advocate in Mysuru and Chamarajnagar District Courts.
Church mourns former Indian president
The Indian Church and political leaders across party lines are mourning former Indian president Pranab Mukherjee, who died on Aug. 31 in New Delhi. Mukherjee, 84, had brain surgery at the Army Research and Referral Hospital in the national capital in late August. He had also tested positive for Covid-19.
“His passing away leaves a deep void in Indian politics. The Church in India will miss him very much for his political statesmanship, moral integrity and fine oratorical skills,” said Cardinal Oswald Gracias, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).
He recalled that Mukherjee was the chief guest at the CBCI’s Christmas celebrations in December 2018 when he impressed many with his vast knowledge of the Bible.
“We mourn his loss and express our gratitude for all the support and encouragement he gave the Christian community and its activities. May the Almighty grant him eternal rest.” Cardinal Gracias said.
India bans four Christian groups from accepting foreign funds
India’s Home Ministry has cancelled four Christian organizations’ licenses to receive foreign donations without specifying any reason for the move. The Christian groups are among six organizations whose licenses have been cancelled this year, a ministry source told UCA News.
The four organizations are Mumbai-based New Life Fellowship Association, Evangelical Churches Association of Manipur in the northeast, Ecreosoculis North Western Gossner Evangelical and Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church — both based in Jharkhand State. A license number under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), commonly known as an FCRA number, is mandatory to receive foreign donations in a bank account.
“From time to time, relevant matters concerning FCRA norms are reviewed, and government actions are taken,” said an official without citing any specific reasons for cancelling the FCRA numbers of the four Christian organization. Federal agencies are probing the funding activities of two US-based Christian donors — the Seventh Day Adventist Church and Baptist Church — in India.
Dalit Catholics threaten to start new Indian church
Dalit Catholic leaders across India have threatened to start a new church if their demand to end casteism and discrimination against Dalits in the Catholic Church is not met. Around 30 speakers and 150 participants attended a virtual meeting on Sept. 5 organized by six Dalit Christian organizations from the southern State of Tamil Nadu.
“If the Vatican does not immediately remove the discriminatory process of bishop selection that neglects qualified Dalit priests, we could announce our own Indian Dalit Catholic Church or the Indian Dalit Catholic Rite,” Franklin Caesar Thomas, coordinator of the National Council of Dalit Christians (NCDC), told.
“The new church will separate Dalit Catholic Christians from the Indian Catholic Church’s casteist leadership.”
During the virtual meeting, Dalit leaders appealed to the Catholic Church, the apostolic nuncio to India and Pope Francis to curb the visible and invisible untouchability practices that exist in the selection of bishops.
They said that none of India’s four cardinals and 31 archbishops have a Dalit background. Similarly, among 188 bishops, only 11 are from the Dalit community. In caste-ridden Tamil Nadu, only one of 18 bishops is from a Dalit background.
Dalits, formerly untouchables, are the lowest caste within Hindu society. Huge numbers of Dalits have converted to Christianity and Islam over the decades, though the religions offer limited protection from societal prejudice.
The word Dalit means “trampled upon” in Sanskrit and refers to all groups once considered untouchable and outside the four-tier Hindu caste system. Government data shows 201 million of India’s 1.2 billion people belong to this socially deprived group. Some 60 percent of India’s 25 million Christians are of Dalit or tribal origin.
Vincent Manoharan, national convener of National Dalit Christian Watch (NDCW), told that years of protests by the Dalit Christian community had not brought any positive changes. He said protest marches are planned near the nuncio’s office and the headquarters of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).
Minorities make up more than half of India’s prisoners
Muslims, Dalits and tribal people are more likely to be imprisoned in India than Hindus, according to a new report. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report also says that that these groups make up around 52% of inmates across the country.
“Minority groups have been subject to suppre-ssion for several years, so it is nothing new. There is prejudice among people that crime is always committed by minorities,” Father Vijay Kumar Nayak, secretary of the Indian Catholic bishops’ office for Dalits and lower classes.
“It is obvious that their number is more because of their illiteracy, financial crises and lack of means to engage lawyers, plus police bias to file charges against them freely without fearing a backlash.”
The priest said these minorities are poor, vulnerable and easy prey for authorities. Muslims, Dalits and tribal people together account for 39 percent of India’s population, according to the 2011 census, Muslims make up 14.2%, scheduled castes 16.6% and scheduled tribes 8.6%.
According to the NCRB, at the end of year 2019, Muslims formed 16.6%, Dalits 21.7% and tribal people 13.6% of India’s prison population. Muslim leader Muhammad Arif, chairman of the Centre for Harmony and Peace, told that the poor are “left at the mercy of God to fend for themselves.”
“The so-called media, which claims that it is secular, is least bothered to raise its voice at national level as it is more concerned with the activities of the elite group,” said Arif, whose organization is based in Uttar Pradesh.
“There are several cases in our country where the police arrest poor people in the name of solving the problem.”
Hindu-led inquiry blames Indian Christians for lynching of priests
A fact-finding team led by a Hindu nationalist group in the western Indian State of Maharashtra has blamed Christians and left-wingers for violence that led to the killing of two Hindu priests.
The report by Vivek Vichar Manch, an NGO affiliated to Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), said the lynching was “anything but spontaneous.”
Vivek Vichar Manch has demanded federal investigation agencies such as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) or the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) handle the case.
“It has become fashionable these days to demand a CBI/NIA investigation. The demand made by the so-called fact-finding inquiry would have been more credible had it not come from an RSS-backed organization,” Joseph Dias, founder of the Mumbai-based Catholic Secular Forum, told.
“After targeting Muslims, it is now the turn of the left and Christians. Our community is known internationally for being non-violent and turning the other cheek and loving even our enemies as Jesus commanded.“
The lynching was fuelled by rumours circulating on Whats-App of thieves operating in the area during India’s nationwide lockdown to stem Covid-19.
Kerala records lowest male-female literacy gap in India
With 96.2 percent literacy rate, Kerala became India’s most literate state, according to the latest figures released by the National Statistical Office. Delhi came in second with 89 percent literacy rate. Uttarakhand with 87.6 percent and Assam with 85.9 percent are placed in third and fourth positions in the list. Earlier, south Indian states had topped as the most literate states. But the latest figures show a different story. Andhra Pradesh marked the worst literacy rate of 66.4 percent. Bihar with 70.9 percent, Telangana 72.8 percent and Karnataka 77.2 percent are the other states which marked low literacy rate compared to Kerala and Delhi.
Priest-lawyers regret Indian court punishing activist
The decision of India’s top court to punish an activist lawyer for his criticism of the court raises concerns about free speech in the country, say activists including some Catholic priest-lawyers.
The Supreme Court on Aug. 31 imposed a token fine of one rupee on Prashant Bhushan after he was convicted of contempt of court for two tweets that question-ed the functioning of the court.
“Such a punishment is uncalled for,” said a statement from the National Lawyers Forum of Religious and Priests, a body of more than 200 Catholic priests, brothers and nuns.
The punishment may not be severe “but it could be perceived as an outcome of egotism,” said the forum of priests and nuns who practice law in different courts.
The court “in the name of protecting the institution of the constitution has let down the constitutional tenets,” the statement said.
Telangana people’s assembly presents eight-point demands
Revival of grant-in-aid to Christian minority schools, land for cemeteries and stringent action against those attacking Christians are in an eight-point charter of demands that the Telangana State People’s Assembly on September 7 submitted to opposition parties in the southern Indian state. The assembly that met on September 4-7 in the state capital of Hyderabad also demanded that the state government allot necessary budgets to help Christians face problems from Coronavirus pandemic.
More than 3,000 people attended the webinar that heard eminent activists, academicians and legal luminaries address issues of social protection and welfare, rights of vulnerable sections such as minorities, women, transgenders, Aadivasis, Dalits, the disabled and children. The assembly approved the charter of demands presented by Montfort Brother Varghese Theckanath, director of Montfort Social Institute in Hyderabad. Brother Theckanath, one of the organizers, told Matters India that a delegation from the assembly presented the charter to the opposition parties so that they can take them up in the state legislative assembly sessions that began on September 7.
He said the charter stressed democratic rights and the state’s responsibility.
Fear keeps Pak judges from acquitting innocent Christians
Judges in smaller courts in Pakistan are too afraid to let Christians go free in blasphemy cases because of the threat from extremists, a human rights activist says.
The country prosecutes anyone who is seen to be insulting Islam – with the death sentence often handed out.
In light of another Christian falling foul of the laws, Sajid Christopher Paul, President and Executive Director of Human Friends Organisation, has said more needs to be done to make judges feel secure.
“Judges in the low courts do not feel as secure as the judges in the higher courts. The judges in the low courts do not have as much security as the High Court and the Supreme Court,” Paul told religious freedom charity Aid to the Church in Need.
“I am not saying the judges themselves say they are insecure but the lawyers and everyone involved in cases such as this say that they don’t have the same security so they don’t make the bold decisions.
“The Supreme Court can make daring decisions like the acquittal of Asia Bibi because they have high-level security.”