Hindutva appears to have been targeting the Christian community for some time. Reconversion is aimed mainly at Christians. The VHP led by Togadia & Co. wants to make India a Hindu raj, oblivious of the fact that true Hinduism does not permit reconversion to it, as Jagdish Bhagwati recently emphasized. Hindu vandalism has struck in Delhi once again. Miscreants broke into a Catholic church. This is the fifth such attack on a church in the capital. The Archdiocese of Delhi has expressed anguish at the “deafening silence” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The incident took place less than a week after President Barack Obama’s statement in New Delhi that every person has the right to practise his faith without any persecution, fear or discrimination. Obama is incidentally the first Roman Catholic President of the US. Delhi Police have tried to brush the sacrilege away as a case of theft. The church officials told them that all valuables had been left intact which goes against the theft theory. They have made it clear that it was a targeted attack to hurt religious sentiment. A clear pattern of orchestrated attacks is emerging.
Mabel Rebello, a member of the National Commission for Minorities said that Christians had been targeted in different parts of the country in the last few months. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s professed secularism seems to be mainly to appease the Muslim community which forms a large chunk of the vote bank. He is also anxious to live down the Gujarat massacre of 2002. Few remember the attack on Christians in Surat around the same time. If he wants to pursue a genuinely secular policy, his deafening silence on the Delhi atrocity has to turn into loud condemnation.