Former civil servants want PM’s assurance to Christians

CHENNAI: A group of 93 former civil servants urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reassure the Christian community, which was allegedly facing ‘outright discrimination’ of late through increased verbal, physical and psychological attacks on individuals and institutions.

‘Christians today, and in fact, all minorities are being made to feel like strangers in their own country, and guilty about following their own faiths, because of some vocal extremists operating with impunity and times even with the tacit approval of political or law enforcement authorities,’ the former civil servants, under the Constitutional Conduct Group, said in a letter on Saturday.

They said the violence could be stopped immediately with a word from the top leaders of the BJP, the Union Government and State governments and it was imperative that the Prime Minister gave the assurance to the Christians.

‘We are deeply perturbed by the continued harassment, through speech and criminal action, of minority groups in the country by persons associated with your government, your party, organisations connected to it, and by mischief makers from amongst the public, the former civil servants who had worked in the Central and State governments during their careers, they said.

While Christians constituted only 2.3 per cent of the population with the percentage remaining more or less the same since the census of 1951, an impression had been created that the minuscule population posed a threat to 80 per cent of the population and the principal allegation was one of the forced conversions, they said.

‘It is the duty of the State to safeguard the secular character of our country, to protect every citizen, and ensure the enjoyment of his or her fundamental rights regardless of religion. But it is doing little to protect religious minorities,’ the letter said.

They called upon the Prime Minister to speak out against the outrageous acts committed against religious minorities and to ensure that the police and other officials prevented the recurrence of such incidents.

‘Hate speech has serious consequences. And the arc is swinging visibly from anti-Muslim to anti-Christian, not in one gory riot but in a series of provocations like church vandalism, defiling of statues, beating up worshippers, the bogey of conversions, and public call for genocide from the nation’s capital,’ the letter added.