From the top, it’s not about the anger at Christians converting people from other faiths. If that happens at all, it’s insignificant. So insignificant, that the government lacks any statistics on it. Imagine implementing a political strategy without any information to support it.
The truth is, as I’ve said before: distraction is needed to deflect attention from Modi’s substandard economic and social development performance. As the economy improves, you will see that the anti-minority rhetoric will subside, but the seed having been planted, will not just go away. What the men in power don’t bargain for, or perhaps they have no problem with, is that among the lower level criminal elements in societies throughout the country on whom politicians count, there will be a sensing of opportunity looking at the low-lying fruit. Christian churches, schools, religious institutions and recreational centres had the foresight to buy properties in years gone by when it was cheap, properties that surrounded their buildings as open grounds for sport or for tree canopy or because it was the custom during the British to give an impressive appearance to whatever was built. Another factor was that a lot of land came into the possession of the church through the final wills of pious landowning parishioners, often when the last remaining family consisted of old bachelors or spinsters. Anyone who lived in Bombay’s suburbs will attest to this. So the easy, albeit criminal path to grabbing these valuable assets is by creating confusion and communal disharmony. Talk of a temple that seemingly existed on a church land. Shout about a group of nuns converting local Hindus and frighten them. Threaten priests running a Christian school and change the management to a local rag tag political outfit masquerading under the guise of a neighbourhood NGO and voila, you have changed wealth that was used for everybody’s educational and social good into the hands of political goons to satisfy their own greed. And through this all, it seems to me, that the people who matter in church authority instead of seeking allies with the Hindu educated class, many of whom are in power and know these institutions well, having passaged through them, are instead, going like cows to the slaughter. https://www.dw.com/en/india-hardliners-disrupt-christmas-celebrations-in-modi-stronghold/a-60265154?maca=en-EMail-sharing Roland. Toronto.
