NEW DELHI (UCAN): Church officials say that Asian Youth Day will no longer take place in India in October 2021 due to unforeseen circumstances. The axing of the event had already been mooted in December (Sunday Examiner, 29 December 2019)
“Our country was given the responsibility of hosting Asian Youth Day (AYD), a mega event that promotes youth at the highest level where they can put forward their views and ideas and voice their concerns. Unfortunately, we will not be able to give them that platform,” Bishop Nazarene Soosai of Kottar, said.
“After consultations with higher authorities, it was decided that it was better to call off the event as the present scenario does not allow us to hold the programme,” said Bishop Soosai, head of the Commission for Youth of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India.
“We had hoped that there would be a change of government in 2019, but that did not happen and the present situation does not look good either,” he said.
The 2019 general elections, saw the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party of prime minister, Narendra Modi, win a landslide to secure a second, five-year term in power.
“There are several practical reasons why this event was cancelled. A major reason was the granting of visas to our visitors from neighbouring countries,” Father Chetan Machado, secretary of the Youth Council of the bishops’ conference, said.
“It is unfortunate that our country has lost this opportunity to showcase the unity and diversity that we enjoy, but the present situation does not permit us to host this programme,” he lamented.
“The country is currently going through difficult times. Guests from neighbouring countries will face visa problems and even if they get visas their movements will be restricted to the venue,” he continued, adding,
“Officially, we will communicate to the Asia Youth Desk our inability to host this programme after the bishops’ meeting in February.”
The Indian delegation received the AYD Cross from their Indonesian counterparts at the conclusion of the 2017 event in Yogyakarta, as sign that they would host the event in India in 2021.
