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 At Khambla Zapa Centre, Navsari district in Gujarat, the district headquarters of the Salvation Army Church are situated. Major Natwarlal Macwan is its divisional Commander and under his jurisdiction are 21 churches covering 24 villages. But Major Natwarlal Macwan and other Christian priests from this vast area having dense Christian population do not have a licence to perform marriages. As part of their social responsibility, these priests have to perform marriage rituals for 1350 families, who are local tribal people and members of the Salvation Army Church. Major Natwarlal Macwan had given a written application to the legal department on 17 March 2002 for obtaining licence to perform marriages. But the legal department refused to act, though they later initiated legal procedure at the police department and collector’s office level just for name’s sake. Even then in response to the application dated 17 March 2002 the marriage license has not yet been issued to the Christian priests. Meanwhile the Salvation Army Church authorities approached the All India Christian Council (aicc), seeking its help. The aicc unit of Gujarat, keeping in view the seriousness of the case and the biased attitude of the Gujarat government towards Christians, made a written representation to the President of India and also to different national forums to invite their attention towards the communally biased attitude of the legal department, refusing to issue marriage license to the Christian priests. In response to the aicc representation dated 22 April 2004, National Minorities Commission member VV Augustine issued instructions on 27 April 2004 to the legal department secretary Bela Trivedi and directed her to take necessary action for issuance of marriage licence to the Christian priests. Also on 14 July 2004 the National Human Rights Commission, through a notice, directed the Chief Secretary of Gujarat to take necessary action and issue marriage licence to the Christian priests. This whole issue clearly shows the biased attitude of the government in Gujarat headed by Narendra Modi, who tries to suppress the minority community. Aicc joint secretary Samson C Christian says, “ The Christians living in Gujarat are being harassed by the state government. We have been forced to get the Central government involved in every issue for justice.”
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