Secular India has been taken aback at the aspersions that Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, has cast on Christian service to the nation.

He is reported to have said missionaries are indulging in conversions in the guise of service. What is the more serious is that Mr. Vajpayee made these remarks at a function at his official residence in front of the a gathering of leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, who are, together with other members of the Sangh Parivar, leading the hate campaign against the minority communities, and specially against the small Christian community.

This remark comes when the country is facing a renewed violence against Christian priests, nuns and religious workers. Many of these acts of violence have been found by the police of the concerned states to have been perpetrated by members of the Sangh Parivar. The All India Christian Council had some days ago called on the Prime minister to rein in Parivar vigilantes who, after the training in fire arms they have received in recent months in some states including Uttar Pradesh, have taken the law into their own hands and were assaulting Christian.

Government leaders, including the Prime Minister, have made no secret of their membership of the Sangh, and of their admiration for its ideology. But using the Prime minister’s official residence to hit out at the Christian community gives Mr. Vajpayee’s statements an official stamp. The apprehensive minority community calls upon National Democratic Alliance partners in Mr. Vajpayee’s government to tell the nation if they agree with the Prime Minister’s remarks against the Christians, and his certificate to the Sangh.

In one stroke, Mr. Vajpayee has cast a dark shadow of doubt on the entire Christian endeavour in national development, the uplift of the Dalits and marginalised, the selfless care of the sick and the dying, and the crucial task of building a new India through education to the masses. He has stigmatized the work of more than 25,000 Christian educational and health institutions in the country - the largest non governmental effort in Asian history - which reach out to the people in areas where even government agencies have not reached, or have withdrawn in this age of privatisation.

Christian social work is inspired by the teachings of Jesus Christ to love one’s neighbour. It follows in the footsteps of the pioneering educational efforts of William Carey, the initiation of women’s emancipation by Pandita Ramabai, the spiritual journey of Sadhu Sundar Singh, the great love that Mother Teresa had for the poor till her last breath, and the late Archbishop Alan de Lastic’s commitment to the civil liberties dignity of the human person. This is the essence of Christian service.

The powerful agencies of the government of India, which monitor foreign contributions and much else, have not been able to fault Christian institutions, though this has not prevented the harassment educational institutions by vested political interests in many states. The Church has denounced fraudulent and forcible conversions as illegal and against our principles. Conversions by force and fraud are a contradiction in terms. There is no conversion unless it is of one’s free will, a freedom guaranteed by the Constitution of India and the codes of the United Nations.

Parallels will be seen between this statement of Mr. Vajpayee and his call for a national debate on conversions in 1999 when the country had just witnessed the desecration and destruction of three dozen churches in the Dangs district of Gujarat, and the burning alive of Graham Stuart Staines and his two sons three weeks later. Then, as now, there was no statement of condemnation of violence, and no effort to soothe the injury of the community whose members had experienced coercion and intimidation.

Remarks such as the Prime Minister’s are seen as condoning the hate campaign and the canards, lies and half-truths that are being spread in many parts of the country. They encourage communal and extremist elements to greater frenzy. Above all, they directly goad hate mongers to curtail Christian social inputs in education, health and the uplift of marginalised segments, particularly the Dalits.

The governments at the Central and State governments must work towards restoring the confidence of the minorities, which has been rudely shaken. Governments must to bring to book all those who are imposing an atmosphere of terror against the minorities, and thereby damaging the cultural plurality and secular structures of the nation. Nothing less will suffice.