Chennai, March 19: 2019: The head of the Catholic Church in Tamil Nadu has approached the Madras High Court for change in the general election date in the southern Indian state.
“There are two difficulties — the timing and the venue,” Archbishop Antony Pappusamy of Madurai explained the Church’s problem while seeking the court direction to the Election Commission to shift the poll date from April 18, Maundy Thursday.
Maundy Thursday falls within the ‘Holy Triduum’ or three holy days of the Catholic Church.
Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, a federally ruled territory adjacent to Tamil Nadu, will elect their representatives in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, on that day.
Archbishop Pappusamy wants the commission to either change the date or shift more than 2,000 polling booths located in schools within church premises across the state.
”There are schools located on premises of most churches. The Catholic Church runs around 2,800 schools. All other schools are aided or partly-aided Tamil medium schools. Most aided schools are traditionally used by the government as election booths. When a school is notified as an election booth, a specified radius and its perimeter will become a security zone, with restricted movements. Even on the previous day, these premises will be taken over by security forces and go under their control,” explained the archbishop, who is the president of the Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council.
Noting that a security concern may arise and religious activity on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday may be hindered, senior counsel Xavier Arulraj said, “It is not a question of a few hours of prayer. All three days, there will be prayer and continuous religious activity on church campus.”
This is not an isolated problem but a common issue in thousands of churches, more specifically in rural areas, he added.
Source: The Times of India