ICC Note:
Following the sixth attack on a Christian building in the past two months, India’s prime minister has finally called on local police to expedite their investigations and bring the culprits to justice. Earlier today, a Christian school was discovered to be vandalized just a week after a church suffered a similar attack in New Delhi. Local Christians have been calling on Prime Minister Modi to step in and insure their security, but it took a sixth attack for the prime minister to take the issue seriously.
2/13/2015 India (Wall Street Journal) – India’s premier on Friday pushed police in the capital to catch the culprits in a series of recent attacks on Christian houses of worship and a school, which church leaders say reflect rising religious intolerance.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a politician with Hindu nationalist roots, expressed “grave concern over rising crime and vandalism,” in a meeting with Delhi’s police commissioner, the government Press Information Bureau said.
The capital’s top cop was called in after a burglary at a Catholic school was discovered Friday morning. The break-in followed an alleged arson attack on a church in early December, vandalism at another this month and other incidents.
“There is a definite pattern emerging in the targeting of Catholic properties,” said the Rev. Vijayesh Lal, a minister with the Evangelical Fellowship of India, but he cautioned that the motive for the school break-in wasn’t known.
Since Mr. Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party won power in an electoral landslide last year, some supporters have become increasingly outspoken about their belief that India is a Hindu nation.
Critics of the prime minister have said he hasn’t done enough to protect religious minorities and defend India’s constitutional pledge of secularism. Friday was Mr. Modi’s first public response to the church incidents.
“We appreciate the prime minister’s statements. This is better late than never,” said the Rev. Savarimuthu Sankar, a spokesman for the archdiocese of Delhi. “But the police continue to deflect the blame.”
Bhim Sain Bassi, Delhi’s police commissioner, said Friday that intruders at the Holy Child Auxilium high school ransacked the principal’s office and stole about $125. He said it was a case of theft and not vandalism.
Mr. Bassi said police were investigating the fire and this month’s break-in at St. Alophonsa’s Roman Catholic church—during which liturgical items were stolen and Communion wafers scattered on the altar and stairs.
He said Mr. Modi had urged him to “speed up investigations and punish the culprits.”
…
