Petition seeks 100,000 signatories.
By Sujeet Rajan
WASHINGTON, DC: Ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit to India later this month, an online petition has been launched on the White House portal by mostly Indian-origin Christians in the United States, urging the president to speak to prime minister Narendra Modi to “preserve and promote the religious freedom of minorities”.
Created on January 3 by somebody who has only given his/her initials, ‘A. C.’, and is from Davenport, Indiana, the petition (https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/we-urge-our-president-request-indias-prime-minister-preserve-and-promote-religious-freedom/4TmrHVcH) has got 139 signatories as of this report. All signatories have only given their initials. The goal of the petition: 100,000 signatories by February 3.
Here is the petition in full (sic):
“We urge our President to request India’s Prime Minister to preserve and promote the religious freedom of minorities.
We urge President Obama to convey to Mr.Modi, our concerns about escalating violence against India’s Christian minority (physical & verbal abuse, arson of churches, forcible re-conversion ). A few Hindu leaders of his coalition have also provoked concerns among many Indians, through their directives to Heads of Christian Schools to install Hindu idols, forbid students to address Catholic Cleric-teachers as “Fathers” but as “Acharyas” etc. Mr. Modi recently ordered the renaming of Christmas holiday as Good Governance Day. Mr. Modi remained silent whenever these issues were raised in Parliament, as he did during the 2002 Godhra riots. We urge you to request Mr. Modi to condemn religious intolerance and break his silence on this critical issue.”
Obama will be the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations on January 26. The Secretary of State John Kerry is also scheduled to visit India this month, to attend the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in Ahmedabad.
4 Comments
“Mr. Modi recently ordered the renaming of Christmas holiday as Good Governance Day.”
What a blatant lie.. A stupid minister in Modi’s government asked certain public schools to celebrate former Indian-PM Vajpayee’s birthday (which also happens to be on 25th Dec) as “good governance day” While that was bone-headed, it was a junior minister’s “brain-wave” and not PM’s orders. There was never any question of renaming Christmas – that’s simply absurd.. Its a holiday that many Indians (including non-Christians like myself) cherish & celebrate. And we don’t go by government edicts.
These people are the worst enemies of Indian Christians – they seek to alienate the community from mainstream India. Rabid right-wingers in India, who accuse minorities of having “foreign loyalties”, will get plenty of ammo from this.
Indian Christians have strong institutions in India – Courts and human rights Commissions – to turn to.. Complaining to Obama is hardly going to help – the Indian PM is not answerable to him..
The act of vandalism at Delhi Church was caught on CCTV…it was committed by two drunken Sikh men whose picture was captured in the CCTV…they were promptly arrested by Delhi Police and they later confessed that it was a bet between them that led them to do this act of vandalism and not any religious angle…..why then Modi or BJP is being dragged into this? Minor Law and Order matters are made into religious conspiracy by vested minority ‘community’ leaders who have their own agenda of communal divide…they leave no opportunity to bad-mouth Hindutva or to link it to PM Modi’s rule mischievously.This only distracts the war on terror…just last week 2000 Christians were killed by Islamist ‘Boko Haram’ in Nigeria…it is a shame that these leaders in India shed fake tears when Israel takes down even militants in Gaza but these same ‘community’ leaders did not raise a voice for those butchered by Boko Haram or ISIS!
Back in 2009, 14 Islamic Radicals from Deendar Anjum were sentenced by Karnataka Govt. for over 3 low-intensity blasts at churches in Karnataka….they later confessed that they did that to defame Hindutva organizations and to cause enmity between Hindus and Christians…Christians and Hindus live peacefully in India and even in Gujarat, Christians were the only community that was fully safe when that state had riots back in 2002.The vandalism at How Islamist group Anjum bombed Churches in Karnataka and tried to blame it on Hindus to cause enmity:tinyurl.com/mceblvn
So Prime Minister Modi HATERS are still alive and kicking around creating trouble after FAILING with their OFFER massive money just to deliver their NASTY note to him when he visited as Prime Minister. They and their financiers should DESIST such type HATE MONGERING and be DECENT!
So are these hipocrats suggesting that it has to be done like what theresa did in the North Eastern Indian states?!!! She converted millions of Hindus to christianity by pure deception. The reality is out there for any one to see, just open your eyes and ears an use the same yard stick to measure what this female theresa did and what Indians are doing. Every converted christian thinks he or she is supperior to the christian who converted them. I don’t think Christ would have approved of what these hypocratic christians are doing.