SHILLONG: The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) General Secretary, Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, SFX, in an open letter to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, has asked him to intervene “to stop the hatred,” unleashed by the BJP leader and Chief Minister Raghubar Das, in Jharkhand.
In an open letter on September 13, also sent to all the 172 Catholic Dioceses in India, the CBCI General Secretary said the PM was perhaps aware that “there is spiraling hatred” created by the Jharkhand CM “belonging to your Party which, if not controlled immediately, could take the state and its people down the streets of violence and hate.”
Bishop Mascarenhas said that all along he had refrained from making any comment on the tragic happenings in the state, but in view of prevailing situation he was writing the open letter to the Prime Minister whom he viewed as the “one person to whom I could appeal,” to not only stop the hatred” unleashed in Jharkhand on the Christian community, but also because of the reassuring “sabh ka sat, sabh ka vikas” proclamation of the Prime Minister. “If I am not mistaken, it was on this slogan that you personally campaigned in Jharkhand for the State elections, which made Raghubar Das, the Chief Minister of the State,” recalled Bishop Mascarenhas.
