Christians in India’s Jharkhand State have claimed that a government plan to probe church land holdings amounts to persecution.

The state government is controlled by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which also rules nationally and has been accused of having an anti-Christian agenda.

“This is surely a vindictive action,” Kuldeep Tirkey, leader of the ecumenical Christian Youth Association, told ucanews. com. “It is the latest in a series of such probes and actions taken deliberately to target minority Christians.”

Tirkey said that since early July state chief Minister Raghubar Das has been talking publicly about the need for a probe to determine whether or not church groups legally own all the land they are occupying.

At issue is the implications of two state laws called the Chhotanagpur Tenancy Act of 1908 and the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act of 1949 that prohibit outsiders buying traditional tribal land.

Most of the state’s 1.5 million Christians are tribal people and many Christian institutions and parish churches stand on land said to have been donated by them.

If an investigation showed that some church-occupied lands were actually sold by tribal people to non-tribal missionaries, the state could initiate legally proceeding, church sources said.

Father Anand David Xalxo, spokesman for the archdiocese covering state capital Ranchi, said the Church had not received any official communications from the government about the investigation. “We have been hearing about such a probe from media,” the priest said.

If and when there is an official notification of the government’s intentions, church officials would respond, he added.

Christian leaders see the threat as part of what they regard as a vendetta.

Indian Catholic priest  Fr Dominic Valanmanal, who preached that an increased incidence of autism and hyperactivity in children is due to their parents’ lifestyle has apologised for his remarks.

“I have a deep affection towards autistic children. I tell their parents that I am part of their family. I am deeply saddened to hear that my words have hurt them. They are the children of  the good God and I continue to pray for them,” Fr Valanmanal says in the video.

In a previous video the priest had stirred controversy by saying that autistic children behave like animals. He also said that young men and  women who are addicted to alcohol, cigarette, beedi, narcotics, paan, adultery, masturbation, homosexuality and porn  are likely to bear these type of children when they get married  because the anointing (sanctity) is lost.

Following this Ireland and Canada cancelled their invite for Fr Valanmanal to conduct retreats in their dioceses. They stated that the priest’s statements did not reflect the pastoral care and concern that the Church has towards children and adults living with autism and their families.

Indian Christians are among the last in terms of human develo-pment in Indian society. The rate of unemployment among Christian men in rural as well as urban areas is higher than those from other religions across the country, Fides News Agency reported July 2, 2019.

Minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi presented the data in the Lok Sabha in reply to a question posed by Trinamool Congress member Prasun Banerjee. Banerjee asked the government whether it has any updated data on the unemployment rate prevailing minority communities.

Naqvi cited the data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) of 2017-18. The PLFS was launched by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) in 2017 as a nationwide Labour Force Survey. According to the report, the unemployment rate among Christian men is at 6.9% in rural areas and 8.8% in urban areas, higher than men of other religious communities. Among women, Sikh females accounted for the highest number of unemployed in urban areas and Muslim women in rural areas. The minister said that in rural areas the rate of unemployment among Hindu men was 5.7%, among Muslim men 6.7% and among Sikh men, it was 6.4%. On the other hand, in urban areas, 6.9% of Hindu men remained unemployed, 7.5% was the rate among Muslim men and 7.2% among Sikh men.

A group of more than 50 people from all walks of life from the Greater Boston area assembled in Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA, to protest against the unabated pace of mob lynching and the growing threat to human rights of citizens in India, especially those of Muslims, Dalits, and other minorities.

The protestors demanded justice for the victims and their families, as well as urged for immediate public action to bring an end to hate crimes against minorities. The attendees of the event included individuals of Indian, South Asian, and American origin as well as representatives from various organizations.

Concerned citizens also protested in Chicago to demand immediate action against the perpetrators of lynchings as well as the politicians encouraging them. They said, “We, the concerned citizens of India and of Indian Origin living in US condemn such lackadaisical attitude of the government towards mobocracy and therefore, encouraging Law of Jungle and demand that the country be saved from falling into a dark era where mobocracy takes over.”

People of all ages and faith held posters and banners that expressed, outrage, grief and a demand for justice. One poster read “Punish criminal political patronage to lynching,” while other one had a the names – “Akhlaq, Pehulu, Afrazul, Junaid… Tabrez. Stop before it is you.”

“It is a matter of grave concern for all people to raise their voices against this attack on Right To Be of a section of people and individuals. It is an attack on all people and is a form of state terrorism carried out by the ruling elite to attack, divert and divide people, who are struggling hard to find solutions to basic problems such as food, water, shelter, safety and security which are caused by the rule and plunder of a handful few. We must not let this pass” said Jaspal Singh who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Expressing concern over religious discrimination, Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen on July 5 said one cannot negate the political link behind it.

“As per the position of the people of various religions in the Indian Constitution, there should not be any discrimination,” Sen said during an educational event here. The octogenarian felt that the current perception is highly driven by caste discrimination and differentiation on religious grounds.

According to him, if the society reaches a position where a person is being forced to utter something and being beaten up for not abiding, everyone needs to think over the urgent needs of the hour and change the perceptions accordingly.

“We cannot say that these incidents are not politically motivated,” Sen said.

Last month a man in West Bengal’s Coochbehar district was beaten up for not uttering ‘Jai Shri Ram.’ The incident of Tufanganj surfaced after a video clip was circulated on social media.

In the video, a man was being made to do sit-ups holding his ears and forced to say ‘Jai Shri Ram.’ The man followed help-lessly.

Also, several cases of scuffle between Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party workers over chanting of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ have been reported in the state.

Sen said the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan has no historic connect with the Bengali culture, unlike ‘Ma Durga’ who has a big presence in Bengali psyche.