New Delhi, April 18- The police in India’s capital New Delhi denied permission for the Palm Sunday “Way of the Cross” procession from St. Mary’s Church to Sacred Heart Cathedral, a six-mile route, citing security concerns, the Catholic Herald reported.
The report said that the Delhi parish accepted the police decision “respectfully”, and confined the event within the premises of the Sacred Heart Cathedral.
The Catholic Association of the Archdiocese of Delhi (CAAD) expressed its “deep shock and anguish” over the police’s decision.
In a statement issued on Sunday (April 13), CAAD said the police’s reason, was “difficult to accept, especially when other communities and political groups are being routinely granted permissions for processions and rallies, even during peak hours on working days.”
“Christians now question whether their constitutional right to religious freedom is being equally upheld,” it added.
“For over a decade, the annual Way of the Cross has been conducted with utmost discipline, peace and full cooperation with the authorities. Not once has there been a report of traffic disruption or a law and order issue linked to our event,” CAAD said.
“Christians in Delhi – and across India – have always been a peaceful, law-abiding community. We appeal to the authorities to act judiciously and ensure that justice and equality are upheld. We urge that such actions do not create a sense of exclusion or doubt in the minds of minorities who contribute positively and peacefully to the nation’s fabric,” it added.
Since 2014, India has been ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has strong links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a militant Hindu nationalist organization. Religious minorities have complained of increased harassment since the party took power on a “Hindu-first” platform, the Catholic Herald said.
“Incidents of harassment against Christians and other religious minorities have increased across India, with Christians being detained or arrested for attempted conversion, and places of worship being vandalized,” it pointed out.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan called the move unconstitutional. Kerala has a large Christian population. The Chief Minister stated that the denial is a violation of religious freedom and the secular values enshrined in the Indian Constitution.
Senior Congress leader K.C. Venugopal on Sunday slammed the BJP for denying permission. In a letter addressed to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, he wrote, “I am writing to register my strong protest and deep concern over the recent denial of permission for the Kuruthola Pradakshina (Palm Sunday) procession to the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Delhi – a church deemed significant enough for the Hon’ble Prime Minister to grace with his presence during Christmas and Easter.”
Senior Indian journalist, Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay writing “The Wire” said that the denial of permission marked the latest push of India’s majoritarian Hindutva-driven state towards making religious minorities “invisible” in India.
Not permitting the annual procession stands was in complete contrast to the stance of the Punjab Police which allowed Christians of Amritsar to take out a procession. This was done under the auspices of the Diocese of Amritsar, Church of North India (CNI), on April 13 – Palm Sunday, celebrated every year as ‘Peace Day’ in the city.
In Delhi, the annual procession had been taken out regularly after the current Archbishop of Delhi Anil Joseph Thomas Couto, took charge in December 2012 and started this tradition in 2013.
Last year too, the police did not grant permission to take out the procession although there was barely any reason and the AAP government was in office. The only factor for the denial was that the city was in the grip of election fever.
Not being allowed to take out the procession two years in succession raises the spectre of the Christian collective being made ‘permanently’ invisible in public spaces and allowed to congregate only within church premises, Mukhopadhyay said.
The day after Palm Sunday thousands of people, besides the country’s political elite, paid floral tributes to the statue of Dr.B.R. Ambedkar at the Parliament House Lawn. Queues of people from across India waited patiently in intense heat for their turn to pay tributes to Dr Ambedkar, the author of the Indian constitution which guarantees civil rights and religious freedom. The Delhi Police did not envisage any threat to law and order. But a law and order breakdown weighed heavily in their minds when a few thousand Christians were to join a Palm Sunday peace procession through empty roads.
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