Some Christians want to make big by spreading 'falsehood and hatred'
No body in India is probably 'stalling' the Pope’s visit to India
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| June 14, 2024 : Modi, Rishi Sunak, Miloni and Pope |
On June 14, 2024 -- hardly 10 days after a mandate where he lost some key seats, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew to Italy at the invitation of his counterpart Giorgia Meloni for the G7 Summit, where he met Pope Francis.
Modi posted photographs on social media showing him hugging the pontiff, holding his hand, and sharing lighter moments with him.
“Met Pope Francis on the sidelines of the @G7 Summit. I admire his commitment to serve people and make our planet better. Also invited him to visit India,” the Indian premier said on X (formerly Twitter).
It is a matter of fact that PM Modi had invited the pope in 2021 when he called on him at the Vatican.
Modi recalled this 2021 meeting during a television interview a few days before Kerala state, with a sizable Catholic population, was to go to the polls on April 26 in the general (Lok Sabha) elections.
Christians make up 18 percent of the southern state’s 33 million people. It is also the base for two Eastern rite churches, the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Churches.
But recently went an article in a popular Catholic website, UCAN.
"If blame has to be apportioned for the failure for an early date for a papal visit, fingers point to the PMO, the acronym with which the Prime Minister’s Office is known. It has Modi’s trusted senior bureaucrats still in service years after their retirement age, intelligence experts, and his close political advisers from the time he was chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 till he won his way to the top job in May 2014." -- The entire para reflects an individual's hatred towards Modi.
There is no ground to suggest as a proof that PMO under Modi or the india's pro-Hindutva PM has stalled Pope's visit -- yet the superfluous description on who makes PMO mandarins is unwanted narration in this piece.
Like many Sickular champions - the individual author -- at his ripe age - may feel frustrated since 2014. The rumour mill goes many such 'sickular' individuals were promised 'halwa puri (Indian sweet dish feast)' during the erstwhile Manmohan Singh regime but by 2013-14; it became clear that the Congress-led joke called UPA would not return to power.
And the frustration continues. The Sickular shopkeepers are not so much unhappy about death of secularism in India --- under Modi - than the end of an "elite power" they enjoyed when the Congress was in power.
The bureaucracy could be easily influenced. The offices in ministries were real 'corridors' of power and now the man called Modi and his lieutenant called Amit Shah have ended all that.
The moot point here is Christians and especially Catholics do not do any service to themselves and the entire community by pushing the line that Modi is stalling Pope's visit. I would not mind the Vatican establishment itself or Pope himself stating so. But for individual credited and discredited individuals to claim themselves as 'soul' voices of Christian community in India and that too -- to claim some information which are 'sensitive' both socially and even diplomatically -- may not be advisable at all.
There could be many reasons for Pope not being able to visit India irrespective of the fact that there is an 'invitation' from the Indian Prime Minister.
In the said article (as discussed above), goes another sentence: "Catholic religious leaders have not been able to effectively deny that some of them did indeed facilitate the BJP victory". The honest acclamation would be ... 'religious' leaders in India -- Catholic or non Catholic or even priests and Maulanas do indeed "help facilitate victories of political parties and candidates" -- sometime communists and even notorious corrupt leaders !
So why single out Catholic priests and BJP alone -- just to strengthen an argument !!
It is true India’s Christians are only about 2.3 percent of the country's total population.
Catholics in India could be about 50 percent of the total number of Christians of all denominations in the country. And hence it is advisable they should not think of projecting themselves as india's Muslims -- a community which cherishes just being anti-Hindu.
Once former PM V P Singh, often hailed as a champion of secularism, had visited Mumbai and during those days Shiv Sena was under illustrious Hindu Hriday samrat Bal Thackeray (unlike his son, daughter-in-law and grandson). Late Singh campaigned quite aggressively against Sena and 'Hindutva' politics.
The BJP leaders - then extending support to V P Singh government - were obviously unhappy and they told Singh that such statements were unwarranted.
V P Singh's counter was - "If I have to get Muslim votes in Uttar Pradesh, I have to attack Bal Thackeray during my Mumbai visits. I need not do any good works for Muslims in terms of development, but they expect me or any one to attack Hindu centres of power".
Well, that went for Muslims and it still exist. The Modi government's "inclusive developmental works" did not matter and in many constituencies the Muslims voted against BJP in 2024 polls.
One only hopes "an educated community Christians" should not fall into such categorization.
ends
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