NEW DELHI (UCAN): Christian leaders have welcomed a move by Telangana state in southern India, to distribute US$340,000 ($2.6 million) among Christians for organising community feasts during Christmas.
The chief minister, Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao, announced a plan to spend 200,000 rupees ($21,950) in each of the state’s 119 legislative constituencies to host festivities.
“The funds will be spent on hosting Christmas feasts in each constituency,” said Pastor Stephan Anil Kumar, who heads Telangana Pastors Association, a body of several neo-Christian Pentecostal sects and Churches.
He said local Church leaders, elected members of each legislative constituency and other local body officials will host the feasts.
“It will primarily help poor Christians to enjoy a good meal on our Lord’s birthday,” Pastor Kumar said.
The state government will also present gifts to 235,000 poor Christians, including 35,000 orphans, said B. Shankar Luke, vice-chairperson of the Telangana State Minorities Commission, a statutory body which protects the interests of religious minorities such as Christians and Muslims.
“The gifts include clothes and blankets,” Luke said.
The custom of the state offering Christmas gifts to poor Christians started when Rao became the first chief minister of Telangana in 2014, when it was created by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh.
“The government also celebrates the major festivals of other religious communities irrespective of the majority or minority. It upholds the secular credentials of the constitution,” Luke explained.
Christians are a minority in Telangana, comprising an estimated 1.2 million of a population of some 35 million people. Most come from socially poor Dalit castes, while Catholics constitute roughly half of all Christians in the state.
Bishop Joji Govindu of Nalgonda, called it “a great gesture” from Rao to help with Christmas feasts for the poor among Christians. He explained that Catholics “generally do not take any government help” in organising Christmas feasts or other community programmes.
The government initiative “mostly benefits small fellowship Churches and other small Christian groups,” the bishop said.
“When a government takes the lead in organising a feast like Christmas, it is an encouragement to contribute more for the welfare of the state and its people,” Bishop Govindu said.
Telugu Regional Catholic Bishops’ Council has expressed happiness over Rao’s initiative, saying it showed that the government is “tolerant toward Christian and Muslim communities.”
In a statement, the council said the bishops also expressed their appreciation of the government’s welfare schemes and skill-training programmes for the poor, especially minorities.
