BANGALORE (UCAN/Asianews): St. Joseph Church in the Archdiocese of Bangalore, in Karnataka state, India, was vandalised even as lawmakers were debating the enactment of a law to prevent religious conversions.
“A statue of St. Anthony was found broken in on December 23 morning,” said J.A. Kantharaj, the archdiocesan public relations officer.
“We have no clue who could be behind the attack,” he said, adding that the parish priest had already lodged a complaint with police who visited the church.
St. Joseph Church is more than 150 years old and it is suspected that Hindu vigilantes may have been behind the attack as part of a well-orchestrated strategy to corner the Christian minority across Karnataka.
Indian news agency ANI said that a first information report had been registered by the rural police station against unknown persons for vandalising the statue of St. Anthony’s statue in Chickaballapur district, about 65 kilometres from state capital Bengaluru [Bangalore], known as the information technology capital of India.
Of late, Karanataka, governed by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] has become one of the hotspots for anti-Christian violence, with Hindu groups accusing the minority community and its institutions of carrying out religious conversions.
The state has seen many churches and prayer houses attacked by Hindu vigilante groups while the state police look the other way. On December 4, an unidentified man armed with a machete barged into a church in Belagavi and chased the priest in charge.
‘the anti-conversion bill is anti-Christian’ as it ‘does target Christians specifically’
Archbishop Machado
On December 21, the BJP tabled the controversial Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021, in the state assembly, ignoring opposition from the Congress Party and other opposition entities.
A group of Christians staged a protest against the bill in Bengaluru on December 22. They fear an increase in violence against them and attacks on their institutions if the proposed law comes into force.
Archbishop Peter Machado, who led the protest, told media that “the anti-conversion bill is anti-Christian” as it “does target Christians specifically.”
Questioning the provisions of the bill, he said the proposed law had such stringent clauses that even doing charity work would be a crime. “Even giving free education or a fee waiver to help poor students can be treated as a violation of the law,” he said.
Christians make up 1.87 per cent of Karnataka’s population of 68.4 million. A fact-finding report by a Protestant group in India has documented 39 violent attacks on Christians since January.
On December 27, AsiaNews reported that the Holy Redeemer Church in Ambala, in the state of Haryana, suffered an act of vandalism late on Christmas day.
The church, a historic building dating back to 1843, was closed in the evening, before the curfew imposed on the area following the latest Covid-19 wave. It was found desecrated the next morning with its big statue of Christ broken AsiaNews reported.
A First Information Report was filed with the police against two unidentified young men who were caught by surveillance cameras climbing over the wall and trying to get inside the church\.
“In this time of light and love we feel hurt by this gesture. However, as witnesses of the Redeemer, we shall not give in to violence but will strive to offer our forgiveness and build bridges to share the love of Jesus,” Bishop Ignatius Loyola Mascarenhas of Simla-Chandigarh, said.
