Amid threats and attacks, right-wing Hindu groups are warning India’s minority Christians against celebrating Christmas this year.
Earlier this week, a group of men, reportedly members of the hardline Vishwa Hindu Parishad, disrupted a Christmas event that was organized for an indigenous community in Pratapgarh town in the northern state of Rajasthan.
The group snatched microphones, threw away Christmas calendars and books on the gospels, and accused the organizers of carrying out religious conversions under the pretext of celebrating Christmas.
Yet, authorities made no arrests. “Instead of taking action against these anti-social elements, they began questioning us as if we had ulterior motives,” Laxman Meena, secretary of Masih Shakti Samiti, which had organized the Christmas event, told DW.
Meanwhile, the Hindu Jagran Manch (HJM), a right-wing Hindu group, warned Christian schools in the city of Aligarh, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, not to celebrate Christmas as it may induce students to embrace Christianity.
The group members alleged that Christmas celebrations in schools with majority Hindu students are akin to “forced conversions.”
Adding to the pattern of violence against Christians, a mob linked to yet another right-wing Hindu group, Bajrang Dal, attacked Catholic carol singers in the central state of Madhya Pradesh’s Satna district last week.
The attackers also set a priest’s car ablaze.
Instead of holding the perpetrators to account, authorities charged the Christian group for outraging religious feelings under the state’s draconian anti-conversion law. The group, however, denies the charges and claims they were only visiting the villages to sing songs.
All these incidents have occurred in states ruled by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Ensure law & order during Christmas: Govt to states
The Centre has issued an advisory to all states to ensure law and order during Christmas in the wake of fringe elements recently threatening some Christian community members against celebrating the festival, home minister Rajnath Singh said on Saturday.
“Any festival, whether it is Christmas, Ramzan, Holi or Diwali, should be celebrated without any problems. Strict action would be taken if anyone tries to create ruckus during the festivals,” the minister said on the sidelines of the 54th-anniversary parade of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).
He said India is the only country that believes in ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ – a philosophy that inculcates an understanding that the whole world is one family.
“I believe that all people irrespective of any religion should celebrate each other’s festivals in its true spirit with full enthusiasm,” Singh said.
Inputs from DW and PTI
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