By The Wire Staff
New Delhi: The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) has expressed deep anguish and condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the alarming rise in attacks on Christians across states amid the Christmas season. The statement comes in light of recent reports of mob attacks, including two consecutive incidents in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur.
“These targeted incidents, especially against peaceful carol singers and congregations gathered in churches to pray, gravely undermine India’s constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion and the right to live and worship without fear,” the CBCI said in a press statement.
On Monday (December 22), in Shakti Nagar area of Jabalpur, in Madhya Pradesh, a group of people disrupted a Catholic prayer meeting, alleging religious conversion, an allegation the meeting organisers denied.
The incident followed a similar assault on Saturday (December 20) in Gorakhpur area of the city. A video circulating on social media showed visually-impaired member of a prayer meeting in a church, who was being abused by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, in front of children who were part of the meeting. The party’s city vice president, Anju Bhargava, was seen assaulting a visually impaired woman, triggering a communal row in the state.
Bhargava can be seen twisting the woman’s arm and grabbing her face. As the woman tells Bhargava to speak to her instead of assaulting, the BJP leader is heard telling the woman that she “will be blind in her next birth too”. While this happens, a police officer can be seen standing next to them, asking them to be quiet.
The CBCI condemned this, saying it was “shocked” by the video, and “by reports of anti national groups disrupting Christmas gatherings”.
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