By Thomas Scaria
Bengaluru, Oct 16, 2021: Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore has condemned the continuous harassment on the Christian Missionaries in the state and questioned the wisdom behind conducting a survey on their presence and activities in Karnataka.
The Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare Department in Karnataka has ordered the officers to conduct a survey of both official and non-official Christian missionaries in the southern Indian state, following a discussion on Christian conversions in the state on October 13.
“Why is the government interested in making survey of the religious personnel and places of worship only of Christian community?” asked the bishop in a statement issued October 15.
Instead, “let the government take the count of education institutions and health centers run by the Christian missionaries, which will give a fare idea of the service that is rendered by the Christian community to the nation building and how many people are converted in these places and institutions,” he challenged.
“We consider this exercise as futile and unnecessary. There is no good that will come out of it,” stated the archbishop. In fact, in the background of the conversion boggy and anti-religious feelings that are being whipped up, it is dangerous to make such surveys, he added.
The survey will identify Christian places of worship as well as priests, nuns and pastors and they will be unfairly targeted in future, the archbishop alleged. He said such sporadic incidents are being reported from northern Indian and Karnataka.
“We are sad that the Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai succumbs to the pressures from fundamentalist groups, who wish to indulge in disturbing the peace, harmony, and peaceful co-existence in society,” the prelate stated.
If Christians are allegedly converting indiscriminately why has the percentage of Christian population been reducing regularly compared to other other religious communities?, he asked.
“We are against forceful, fraudulent and incentivized conversions and we repeat that we lawfully abide by the prescriptions of the Constitution of India, which for us supreme and sacred,” Archbishop Machado asserted.
H also questioned the government move to order an anti-conversion law when there is a constitution and the legal system of the country to punish the guilty. Further laws will only become tools in the hands of a few to hound and persecute the innocent.
The Christian community is patriotic, law abiding and would like to be foremost in the service of the poor and downtrodden in the country. “We need support and encouragement from the government, he demanded.