The recent comments made by fundamentalist Hindu leaders against Christians, the United States and their humanitarian work "do not make sense.” In fact, “they have become a sort of regular exercise for these people" while the attack on Maoists operating in the country "calls for action from the authorities to protect the people from indiscriminate grievances," according to Fr Babu Joseph, spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India.

Fr Babu Joseph was reacting to the charges made by KS Sudarshan, leader of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on 22 August 2006. Sudarshan said the CIA and the entire Bush administration "want to convert India to Christianity with the help of non-governmental organisations" while Indian Maoists "are the main authors of terrorism spreading in the country".

John Dayal, Secretary General of the All India Christian Council, said, "The fundamentalists do not need to find reason to attack Muslims or Christians as it is in their nature. Intolerance is a feature of the RSS that has always depicted the Christians as foreigners, aliens or traitors of the country, and it accuses the United States of having 'brought' them here."

Fr Babu Joseph said, "NGOs belong to all religious communities and if their work creates better social cohesiveness, economic prosperity and religious respect among people, they should be supported rather than accused of nonexistent crimes."

"Sudarshan's observations about Maoists operations are dangerous and they call for serious and concerted action from the authorities concerned to redress the social and economic grievances of innocent people," he said.

Almost the same view was held by Fr Cedric Prakash, a renowned human rights activist.  "The comments are typical of the mindset of the likes of Sudarshan," he said and added that "Now that he has all the proof...he only has to instruct all Hindu followers to start protests, including in the US."

The Jesuit priest said, "The RSS and its leaders should always remember that India is a secular nation and Article 25 of its constitutional charter guarantees freedom of worship to all its citizens."