By Matters India Reporter

Varanasi, March 24, 2019: The All India Catholic Union (AICU), Asia’s oldest Laity organization, has expressed deep concern at the communal polarization that is peaking on the eve of the general elections in the country in April and May, AICU president Lancy D’Cunha and spokesman Dr. John Dayal said in a statement here March 24.

The statement was issued at the end of the working committee meeting at Varanasi.

The AICU leadership said many communities including Muslims and Dalits (formerly untouchables) are victims of targeted violence. Of particular concern is the sudden and sustained violence against the Christian community in the Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh, ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

Christian leaders from Jaunpur gave a graphic account of the situation when they addressed the working committee of the AICU at Navsadhana, the noted Catholic mass media centre in Varanasi.

Uttar Pradesh had, in the brief period between September and December 2018, seen as many as 109 cases of violence against Christian pastors, small house churches, and women and men faithful at worship in small towns and villages. This was the highest in the country. More than 40 cases had taken place in Jaunpur alone. In the first months of 2019, the region recorded 15 more cases.

The AICU noted with concern the continuing targeted violence by hard core activists of the Sangh Parivar (right wing Hindu nationalists) in any parts of the country. In most cases, the police was either complicit, or stood by watching. The state impunity had further encouraged mobs taking the law in their own hands.

The ACU noted that there have Christian deaths also at the hands of cow protector lynch mobs in Jharkhand state. One was of a Catholic petty farmer and labourer.

The AICU reiterated its old demand that government recognize Dalit Christians and grant them the protection and rights that the Constitution gives all Dalits.

The Union also criticized the insensitivity of the Election Commission in holding voting on Holy Thursday (April 18) in several parts of the country.

The Electoral Commission has announced that the elections will be held in seven phases, according to the different states of the Federation: April 11, 18, 23 and 29 and then on May 6, 12, and 19. The vote count is scheduled for 23 May. The Indian electorate is about 900 million people.

Alongside the vote for the Lower House of the Federal Parliament, the votes will be held for four state assemblies, in Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Odisha.

The Catholic Union, which celebrates its centenary in September this year, noted the research data that shows the dismal socio economic condition of the community, specially the lack of jobs for young people, and the plight of Dalit Christians and Tribals in most states of central India, stretching from Rajasthan and Gujarat in the West to Bengal and the tea gardens of Assam in the east.

The AICU endorsed the Catholic Bishops’ Pastoral letter on the general elections. The AICU also does not make a preference for any party leaving it to the conscience and good sense of the electorate.

But for the general good of the country with its ancient plural cultural heritage and the joint participation of all communities in the freedom struggle, the Catholic Union wishes for political leaders who commit themselves to the service of the poorest of the poor, to communal harmony, and to a development system that creates more jobs, especially in rural areas as also for the urban poor and women. They should protect the environment without leaving it at the mercy of powerful corporate giants.

The AICU wishes political parties and candidates to assure security for religious minorities, for Dalits, and Tribals. Women and the girl child remain the most vulnerable. The country cannot progress unless every one of them feels secure, D’Cunha said.

The Catholic Union centenary will be celebrated in the national capital (New Delhi) later this year.

About 80% of the Indian population is Hindu. Muslims make up almost 15% of the population, while Christians are 2.3%, alongside other religious minorities.