New Delhi, Jan 8, 2020: Bharatiya Janata Party president Jagat Prakash Nadda has tried to get the support of Christian community to the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The former student of St Xavier’s School in Patna on January 7 met with around 15 pastors of various Christian denominations in the national capital.

BJP vice president Dushyant Gautam and Tom Vadakkan, a Christian from Kerala who joined the pro-Hindu party in 2018, were present at the meeting in Nadda’s Motilal Nehru Marg residence.

The Christian delegates reportedly expressed their displeasure with the Act.

Nadda spoke about his time at the St Xavier’s and reminisced about his time with the Jesuit priests who manage the school. Then, he said the CAA was only to ensure that citizenship is granted to persecuted people from across the border.

He also said he wanted to clarify and change the misinformation spreading on the Act and that he wanted to ensure the Christian priests understood it. BJP had also considered Christian persecution in these countries and that is why the community was also included, Nadda added.

At the meeting, Michael Williams, an educationist, said, “All people are created equal. Since all people are created equal, any law has to be based on the person and not on religion or any other sub-group. We are willing to welcome everyone with open arms.”
“We told him that CAA is incomplete, if everyone is not included, then it is an incomplete Act,” added Williams. There was no one there who supported the Act unlike what BJP stated, underscored Williams.

Another priest who was at the 45-minute-long meeting spoke on condition of anonymity, “We told Nadda that this Act was passed without any discussion. There was no consensus. We have to go to the people, discuss and only then should anything become a law. We told him that we are in a secular India, so no law should discriminate.” He added that they were served tea, coffee, barfi and nuts.

“We told Nadda that there are other persecuted groups such as Ahmadiyyas and Rohingyas who are targeted in our neighbouring countries. We questioned why only three countries were included when there are Christians being persecuted in Myanmar too,” said the priest.

Jesuit Father Denzil Fernandes, director of Indian Social Institute who was also present at the meeting, said that after Nadda explained the CAA to them, he said that BJP was arguing from the point of view of persecuted minorities and that BJP was being humanitarian.
“We expressed concerns about the Act. We told him that we have problems with the selective nature of choosing certain communities of certain countries. We argued that if such a law should come about, it should be religion-neutral. The law cannot be selective. There are Burmese refugees also who are persecuted. Any law which is based on religion is highly problematic. The law should be expanded,” highlighted Father Fernandes.
The Christian team included priests from Methodist, Jacobite, Marthoma and Catholic Churches. Initially, the meeting was to include major Christian councils and bishops.

The first round of calls went to bishops of the Malankara Catholic Church, Churches of North India (CNI), Methodist Church, Marthoma Church, Orthodox Church and National Council of Churches in India. However, most of them requested for a formal invite and an agenda of the meeting. When a formal invite wasn’t sent, several of them did not attend the meeting.

Source: nationalheraldindia.com