Recent attacks on churches in India have created lots of unrest among people, attracted national media, international media and infuriated religious organizations across the globe. Most of these attacks, ranging from small theft to extreme criminal cases, were branded as dangerous communal attacks arising due to the new government at the Centre. Liberals have left no stones unturned to emphasize how minorities and secularism are in grave danger. Indian journalists were quick to conclude that Christians are being targeted by Extremist Hindu groups in all these cases. Interestingly, investigations on the two most outraged attacks on Christian – Bengal nun gangrape and Agra church attack have given a completely opposite results.
It was reported that both the accused involved in the Bengal Case were incidentally Bangladeshi nationals. We also wrote a piece on how secular pretending journalists Rana Ayyub, who declared it a case of hatred and communal intolerance, chose to stay away from the news after the findings were released.
The Agra attack is witnessing a similar fate. When the church was attacked, newspapers ran headlines like “Christian priests raise concern over security” and “Indian cardinal says church attack undermines freedom of religion“. In an interview, Father Santosh, secretary to the Archbishop of Agra, said:
Christians and other religious minorities feel threatened. Security for them had seriously deteriorated since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi came into power last year. Fringe elements are thriving because the Prime Minister doesn’t utter a word against them. They need to speak up. We didn’t have this [situation] with the previous government
The news was circulated by the Western Media with headlines like “Christians living in fear in India”
On 22 April 2015, Agra police detained Nasir, Zafar and Zaffruddin for vandalization of the Agra Church. The Agra police also claimed that a young Muslim attacked the church because of his personal vengeance. The Times of India quoted that
Top sources in the police told TOI that Haider Ali has “confessed” that he let loose his anger at the St Mary’s Church because a Christian girl he loved, and who frequented the church, had failed to return his affection.
It will be interesting to see how liberal pretending faces who were so disturbed by the suppression of minorities by Hindu outfits will change the narratives or digress the topic. Will these people accept that they should not rush to declare communal angles before knowing the facts?
