GUWAHATI (UCAN): Satya Ranjan Borah, the leader of Kutumba Surakshya Parishad, a Hindu group, announced that he plans to take legal action against Church-run schools in northeastern Assam state, India. The schools have ignored a deadline set by the group to remove Christian symbols from their premises.
“I have adequate documents to support my demand,” Borah said on March 7, saying that his preparations are complete to file a case in the high court, the state’s top court.
Borah’s council had set a 15-day deadline on February 7 for all Christian schools to remove all symbols such as crosses and statues from school premises and classrooms.
The February 7 press meeting, addressed by 10 other right-wing outfits, also demanded that priests and nuns come to schools in civilian dress rather than in their religious garb.
Borah publicly made these demands and warned of dire consequences in case of failure.
“I am not against Jesus Christ or Christianity. But my demand is to free missionary schools from religious symbols of all forms,” Borah claimed on March 7.
“We are against all forms of religious symbols in any school premises in the state,” he added.
“A missionary school is to educate children in a secular environment and therefore, there is no scope for installing statues of a religion or adopting a dress code associated with a religion by its staff and students,” Borah said.
Borah had written to Archbishop John Moolachira of Guwahati asking that missionary schools be kept free of Christian symbols.
Reacting to the fresh threat, Archbishop Moolachira said that Borah “is free to file a petition in the court like any other citizen of India.”
The archbishop said, “We too have given complaints to the government,” and dismissed the allegation that missionary schools were being used to promote Christianity.
“Our education institutions serve the poor and the needy and thus the nation. But, unfortunately, such institutions are unnecessarily dragged into false charges such as religious conversion,” the archbishop noted.
Christian missionaries have been engaged in educational service for several decades in the remote areas of Assam, where poor tribal people live.
Borah wrote a letter to the chief secretary of Assam on March 5, requesting action against missionary schools. The letter was also sent to the state’s chief minister and governor, who is a nominee of the federal government. The letter requested that priests and nuns be prevented from wearing their religious attire in schools.
