Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi will be the chief guest at a Christmas gathering hosted by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) on December 23, in New Delhi.
Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, the president of CBCP, will lead the exchange of Christmas and New Year 2025 greetings among church leaders, federal ministers, government officials, and other civil service officials at the CBCI Office at 6:30 p.m. (local time).
However, some leading lay leaders and human rights activists are apprehensive of Modi’s presence at such gatherings for not doing enough to stop violence against religious minorities—Christians and Muslims.
John Dayal, a senior journalist and human rights activist, said, “Good that Hon’ble the Prime Minister will meet the Oriental Christians of the Church collectively once again.”
According to Dayal,” Modi has met heads of many big and small denominations in recent months, as he leads his Bharatiya Janata Party’s thrust deeper into Kerala, Karnataka, and Maharashtra states with their pockets of a voting public among minorities.”
“No such thrust in the states that show massive persecution of Christians, especially those not Oriental Catholic, and specifically among the Evangelical, Pentecostals, and the teeming Independent churches,” Dayal said.
Major faith organizations will release their 2024 persecution data against Christians toward the end of the year.
At the same time, A. C. Michael, a former member of the Delhi Minorities Commission, received an invitation from CBCI to attend the annual Christmas dinner, which Modi will attend.
“But I expressed my inability to be seen with a person who did nothing to stop the Gujarat riots in 2002 while he was the Chief Minister of that state,” said Michael.
“I must add that I refused to attend the Christmas lunch that was hosted by the Prime Minister himself last year,” he added, saying, “Last year when the Prime Minister visited Sacred Heart Cathedral, New Delhi, on the occasion of Easter, that time too I refused to be part of it.”
India is home to 1.4 billion people. More than 80 percent are Hindus, and they are the majority, while Muslims form 14 percent (172 million) of the population. Christians make up 2.3 percent.
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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