By: M. Dinata *)
Hundreds of Indian Christians group detained by The Indian police after they tried to march into the residence of Home Minister Rajnath Singh which has a high security level and no demonstration allowed. This Indian Groups protested against church vandalism happened on Monday, 2 Februari 2015, when unidentified people broke into a church in north Delhi and stole some holy objects. They want government to investigate all of these cases and make Christians feel safe.
“We don’t trust the police to conduct an impartial inquiry. We want a panel headed by a high court judge to investigate these attacks,” said John Dayal, a church official. “Our demand is for justice and security for the Christian community.” Not only this time, in December 2014, a Chatolic church in north Delhi burned mysteriously. Anil Couto, Delhi Archbishop, said that these attacks and vandalism are planned. “A clear pattern of orchestrated attacks is emerging as more churches are targeted, vandalized and set on fire.”
On the other side, police have to stop the demonstrant, because they have no permittion to wage this demonstration. “The protesters have no permission to protest on the road. They can’t just march to the home minister’s residence. We have to protect the homes of VIPs,” said a senior police officer, Mukesh Kumar Meena. Police say they already give protection to all 225 churces in the Indian Capital.
The protesters blame Hindu hardliners as the one who responsibles of these attacks. They feel the attacks increased since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu Fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party wich have a link with the hardliners have absolute won in last national election. Religious conversions have become a political issue since the hardliners said Hinduism were under threat and tried to convice other religions such as Christians and Muslims to change their faith. Christians themselves make 2,3% of 1.26 billion of India’s population.
*) The Author Is Brunei Darussalam Contributor