By Jose Kavi

New Delhi, Dec 23, 2025: The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India on December 23 demanded the federal and state governments to take urgent action to ensure safety of Christians as several incidents targeting the community were reported from across the country.

The bishops, in a statement, expressed deep anguish over what it described as an alarming rise in attacks on Christians during the Christmas season.

The statement said the reported attacks, particularly against peaceful carol singers and congregations gathered in churches for prayer, seriously undermined India’s constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion and the right to live and worship without fear.

The bishops urged both state and the federal government to take urgent and visible action against individuals and organizations spreading hatred and violence.

The statement also appealed to federal Home Minister Amit Shah to ensure strict enforcement of the law and proactive protection for Christian communities so that Christmas could be celebrated peacefully, in an atmosphere of security and harmony, across the country.

The bishops said they were particularly shocked by a viral video from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, central India, that showed a visually challenged woman attending a Christmas program being publicly abused and physically harassed by Anju Bhargava, identified as the city vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Terming the incident dehumanizing, the bishops demanded the immediate dismissal of Bhargava from the party.

They also expressed concern over the circulation of digital posters in Chhattisgarh, eastern neighbor of Madhya Pradesh, calling for a bandh on December 24, against Christians. The prelates warned that such messages could inflame tensions and incite further violence.

Meanwhile on December 23, the United Christian Forum, an ecumenical body based in New Delhi, appealed to Home Minister Sha to cancel the Chhattisgarh Bandh planned for December 24 against Christians.

The forum drew the minister’s attention to 834 incidents of violence against Christians it recorded in 2024, “with an average of 69.5 incidents per month, revealing a disturbing trend in religious persecution.”

The forum recorded 706 anti-Christian incidents until November this year.

“The primary reason for these attacks,” the forum said, “has been false allegations of fraudulent conversions.”

The forum cited a report by the Peoples Union of Civil Liberties that alleged police collusion with Hindutva groups that attacked Christians.

“It was also found that mobs often disrupted prayer meetings and threatened those who gathered complaints under sections 295A and 298 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860,” the forum appeal said.

Several similar incidents were reported earlier from various parts of India in December.

On December 22, police in Kerala, southern India, arrested several Hindu militants for allegedly attacking a Christmas carol group at Pudussery–Kasaba, a village near Palakkad town.

The previous day, a viral video showed a militant Hindu leader harassing a pastor and his wife in Ghaziabad, a town on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, northern India.

In another video from Odisha, eastern India, showed a group of men objecting to roadside vendors selling Santa hats in a “Hindu rashtra (nation).”

On December 21, rightwing Hindu groups disrupted Sunday Mass at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Bichhiwara village, Dungarpur district, in West Bengal, Odisha’s eastern neighbor.