The ‘Hail-Modi’ Christmas ‘party’ for a select group of Christian busybodies who consider themselves ‘leaders’ has backfired.
Despite obstructions and attempts to split the Christian community, the statement titled ‘Christmas Celebration with the PM is Not in Our Name!’ has drawn over 3,200 signatures in a very short time:
“We are in the Christmas Season: a time when we are all called to internalise and actualise the gifts of joy, love, peace, truth, justice and hope which Jesus our Saviour offers to us! Today we also need to take legitimate pride in the fact that Christians in India have contributed significantly to the country… However, in the recent past, particularly since 2014, Christians in India have been victims of continued attacks and vilification from members of the ruling regime, all over the country. Christians and Christian schools and institutions have been hounded and harassed, their places of worship destroyed, they have been denied their ordinary rights as citizens and been subject to denigration and demonization…. Since May 3, 2023, the Christians of Manipur have been subject to constant attacks which still continues unabated and with apparent approval from the BJP Governments both in the State and at the Centre. In the wake of all this, it is ironic that the Prime Minister hosted around 100 Christian representatives of different denominations on Christmas morning for a celebration.”
What was touted as “hosted by the prime minister” was a party conceived and organised by one Anoop Antony Joseph, the former national secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the BJP. He now “coordinates” work at the ‘Modi Story’ dedicated to projecting the prime minister as a larger-than-life politician, focusing on the “inspiring life of Shri Narendra Modi ji.” In short, he is an activist of the “cult-worshipping” brigade that is springing up like a poisonous mushroom.
Those who willingly walked into this brazen “cult-trap” included Cardinal Oswald Gracias, head of the Roman Catholic Church and an advisor to the Pope; Anil Couto, the archbishop of Delhi, and Paul Swarup, the Delhi bishop of the Church of North India, which serves the Anglicans. The guest list also included Thomas Mar Anthonios, a bishop of the Kerala-based Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in Gurugram, Haryana, and Kuriakose Bharanikulangara, the archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Eparchy of Faridabad.
In his address to them, Modi drew a link between his government’s policies and the message of Jesus Christ. “In a Christmas address, the Holy Pope once prayed to Jesus Christ that the people who are trying to abolish poverty should be blessed,” he said. “These words of the Holy Pope are in line with our mantra of development. Our mantra is ‘Sabka saath, sabka vishwas, sabka vikas, sabka prayas’.” But the fact of the matter is that ever since Modi came to power, civil society, voluntary agencies, and community-based organisations have been driven to the ground and poverty has been accelerating by leaps and bounds.
Over 810 million people, who account for 59% of the country’s population, have been put on free ration because of deep deprivation. About 40.2% of Indians did not have enough money for food in 2018. This rose to 48% in 2021. In 2023, it seemed to have climbed up further and is nearing the 60% mark. This abject poverty is further evidenced by the 2023 Global Hunger Index, wherein India ranks 111th out of the 125 countries. What is deeply distressing is that India’s low-income levels and deprivation is accompanied by it being among the most inequitable countries in the world with the richest 1% owning more than 40% of the country’s total wealth, while the bottom half of the population together share just 3%.
The reality is that over the last decade, the wealthy have been growing richer while the less privileged have been becoming poorer.
Also read: India’s ‘Amrit Kaal’: Hunger, Inequity and a $30-Trillion Economy
It is learnt that the prime minister underlined the values of compassion and service that Jesus lived by. He said Jesus worked to create an inclusive society where justice prevails for all and it is these values that are illuminating the way like a guiding light in the development journey of India. He highlighted the similarity of values between different streams of social life, which unite people as he gave the example of the Bible which emphasizses the service of others.
“Service as the supreme religion. In The Holy Bible, truth has been given great importance and it is said that only truth will show us the path to salvation,” said the prime minister.
But what is happening on the ground is just the opposite – a regime led by hate, intolerance, lies, and injustice. There are plenty of instances to cite. As far as “compassion and service that Jesus lived by” are concerned, there cannot be a better example than that of Mother (now Saint) Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity (MoC). Ironically, on the Christmas day of 2021, the Ministry of Home Affairs gave a present to the MoC and its sisters by refusing to renew their registration under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010. In the event, the MoC’s registration expired on December 31, 2021, and after that, the bank accounts under FCRA could not be operated, threatening the closure of their 240 homes for orphans, dying destitutes, and AIDS patients.
The licence was, however, restored in January 2022. The new FCRA certificate will be valid till the end of 2026, the Indian Express had reported.
What the Modi government tried to do was to suppress, oppress, and then shut down MoC, which “served the poorest of the poor, irrespective of all castes and creed, nationality, race or place – giving the individual person whole-hearted and free service.” To them, the “poorest of the poor are the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the homeless, the ignorant, the captives, the crippled, the lepers, the unloved, the alcoholics, the dying and the sick destitute, the abandoned and the outcastes.” Their motto is taken from Jesus’s words in the Bible: “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren you did it to me.” (Mathew, 25:35-40). “Compassion and service that Jesus lived by” is eons away from Modi’s style of governance.
Whether it is tongue-in-cheek or genuine, Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore, who was not part of the ‘party-pack,’ welcomed the prime minister’s “wonderful gesture.” “It was beautiful to hear from our prime minister that Jesus’s life was a message that is centred on compassion and service. No wonder the people were full of praise for the prime minister, who acknowledged the best in Christianity and, for which, he merits the highest praise from the Christian Community.” He wants the prime minister to address the concerns of the Christian community by taking into confidence its leaders. Indeed, everyone is entitled to their own delusions.
The 100-odd ‘unelected’ persons who attended the ‘party’ do not have the mandate of the Christian community. I do not know them, except His Eminence Cardinal Oswald Gracias, whom I know of. To my knowledge he has committed two grievous sins as per Catholic Lexicon: bearing false witness and giving false evidence. The first related to the Manipur crisis, in which over 220 churches were destroyed and over 60,000 people displaced. The common view was that it was a well-orchestrated plan to create religious conflict.
Also read: BJP’s Communal Politics Has Deepened Historical Conflicts in Manipur
John Dayal, a prominent Catholic lay leader, and veteran journalist, who was part of a peace team that visited Manipur, urged the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), to issue “a categorical statement” that Christians have been the victims of the state-sponsored violence against the Kuki-Zo tribes of Manipur. Even Archbishop Dominic Lumon of Imphal, the head of the Catholic Church in Manipur, endorsed this view. Yet Cardinal Gracias, who was president of CBCI, while sitting in the comforts of Mumbai, said that the riots were not a Hindu-Christian conflict but clashes between two tribal groups, thereby pandering to the BJP-RSS combine, which quoted him immediately.
The second case comes from my personal experience.
About two decades ago, he filed a false affidavit in the Madras high court in a case aimed at recovering the super-prime landed property owned by the John DeMonte Trust of the Archdiocese of Madras-Mylapore. The case revolved around a corrupt deal orchestrated by the property-in-charge of the archdiocese, with a land-grabber to alienate 12.5 acres of land in the prestigious Boat Club area of Chennai, then valued at nearly Rs 1,000 crores, and leasing it for a mere Rs 50 crore.
The CBCI was a respondent in the case, and Bishop Oswald Gracias (of Agra) filed an affidavit in support of the corrupt deal, falsely claiming to be the secretary of CBCI, even after leaving that office – committing plain perjury. Despite their efforts, they lost the case, and the property was successfully retrieved. One wonders about the kind of advice such a person is offering to the Pope.
Nevertheless, as evident from the “Not in Our Name” campaign, a vast majority of Christians are hurt by this display of cult-sycophancy and the Christmas festival that was to bring joy has gone sour. A small community like Christians in India stands tall due to their adherence to honour and self-respect. Once these are compromised, the community diminishes first and then could perish. This cannot be countenanced.
M.G. Devasahayam is a former Army and IAS officer.
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