"Not In Our Name": Around 3000 Christians Dissociate From PM Modi's Christmas Invitation (image @BJP4India)
Around 3000 Christian from across India has signed a statement dissociating themselves from the Christian leaders who attended the Christmas lunch which was hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 25th. The statement read that Christians in India were repeatedly subjected to targeted attacks and vilifications since 2014, and the anti-conversion law put forward by the several BJP ruled states have been used as a discriminatory tool against the Christian community. The statement also included the ethnic conflict in Manipur which erupted in May 2023, during which several churches were attacked.
The press release, which was released on January 4 said that while the Prime Minister have right to host dinner for whomsoever he wishes, “one naturally question the intention of this reception when he has not condemned a single attack on Christians, under his Prime Ministership”. It said while PM Modi praised Jesus Christ, he did not share remorse of empathy for the conditions of Christians in India today.
The statement also pointed fingers at the invitees, who were a “select group of Christians”. It said though the invitation was from the Prime Minister of the nation, there was still room for “courteously” declining the invitation in the “light of what has been happening in Manipur and elsewhere”. It is said in the statement that, while the Christian leaders, who attended the dinner, were actually “giving a tacit approval to the omission and commission of this government”, and therefore “their acceptance of this invite was not in our name”.
In 2022, The Wire has reported about the rising attacks against the Christian community, just like how the Muslims in the country are targeted. On September last year, the United Christian Forum (UCF), which is a civil society organisation that focuses on Christian issues, and is based in Delhi, released a data that said, in the first eight months of 2023 alone, there were 525 attacks against Christians in India. The report said that, during the ethnic violence in Manipur, the Archbishop of Imphal in June reported about 249 churches destroyed within 36 hours. The data from UCF was without including the attacks faced by the community in Manipur.
