The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Over 3,000 Christians from across India have signed a statement dissociating from Christian leaders who attended a Christmas lunch hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 25, 2023.
The statement says that since 2014, Christians in India have repeatedly the subject of targeted attacks and vilification, and the so-called anti-conversion laws put in place by several Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states have been used as a discriminatory tool against the community. The statement also draws specific attention to the ethnic violence in Manipur that erupted on May 3, 2023, during which a large number of churches have been attacked.
In September last year, The Wire had reported that attacks against Christians in India have gone up four times between 2011 and 2022, according to data collected by Christian civil society groups. In many situations, A.C. Michael of the United Christian Forum had told The Wire then, the police file FIRs against the victims of such violence rather than the perpetrators.
“While it is certainly within his right as Prime Minister to host a reception for whomsoever he wishes one naturally would question the intention of this reception when he has not condemned a single attack on the Christians, under his Prime Ministership. Interestingly, while he praised Jesus Christ and waxed eloquent about the services of the Christian community, he did not share remorse or empathy for the situation of the Christians in the country today,” the press release issued on January 4 said.
“Those invited to the Christmas reception were a select group of Christians. While the invitation was from the Prime Minister, here was an opportunity for them to courteously decline the invite in the light of what has been happening to the Christians in Manipur and elsewhere,” it continues.
“When these Christian representatives spoke at the reception, they were giving a tacit approval to the omission and commission of this government,” the statement reads. “Hence, their acceptance of this invite was not in our name!”