NEW DELHI (UCAN): The president of the United States (US), Donald Trump underwhelmed India’s Christians with his reticence to speak out about deteriorating religious freedom in the country. Trump concluded his 36-hour India visit on February 25 with a media conference when he heaped praise on his host, Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, but refused to comment on Hindu fanatic violence against religious minorities such as Christians and Muslims.
Christian leaders like Joseph Dias, general secretary of the Mumbai-based Catholic Secular Forum, said Trump’s visit was a great disappointment for India’s Christians.
“Persecuted Christians had great expectations, but Trump lost the opportunity,” Dias said.
Trump dodged questions about religious freedom and religion-based violence by saying they were an internal matter for India.
During Trump’s visit, violence broke out in several areas of northeast Delhi between groups for and against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). At lead 30 people died and over 200 were injured in the deadliest episode of unrest in the capital in three decades.
The CAA, passed on December 11 last year, aims to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities from Muslim-majority Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan while blocking naturalisation for Muslims who see their exclusion from a law that makes religion the basis of citizenship, as yet another attempt by the Modi government to marginalise them.
Coupled with the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens there are fears the moves are intended to strip millions of Indian Muslims of citizenship. People from other disadvantaged caste and gender identities as well as women are vulnerable.
However, Trump began his media address by saying: “I won’t be controversial … don’t want to blow this up. Will be conservative in my answers.”
The US president said discussions he had with Modi related not just to alleged discrimination against Muslims but also “specifically Christians.” Trump also lauded the Modi government’s policy, saying that Modi stands for “religious freedom.”
A.C. Michael, a former member of the Delhi Minorities Commission, said international rights forums, including the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, have detailed the diminishing religious freedom in India.
“Under such circumstances, it was expected from the US president to speak for the freedom of the Indian Christian community, whose support he seeks in his country,” Michael said.
He pointed out that just before leaving for India, Trump “gave an assurance to Indian-American Christians that he would take up the matter of violence against minorities, especially Christians. He has failed to keep his word. He is obliged to explain this unforgivable failure.”
Jesuit Father Denzil Fernandes, director of the Indian Social Institute in New Delhi and a social activist, said Trump spoke along expected lines.
“People were aware that Trump would not say anything about religious freedom or any minority issues because people knew that he was here for a business trip,” Father Fernandes said.
“Not just Trump, no visiting US president in the past gave importance to anything other than business. They come here just for trade promotion. So expecting them to say something about religious freedom will be wrong,” he said,
India and the US held talks in five major areas: security, defence, energy, technology and people-to-people contact. The highest consideration is collaboration in the defence sector, India’s foreign secretary, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, said.
Father Fernandes said business and domestic electoral compulsions forced Trump to skip questions on religious persecution in India. He said Trump also “wanted to please” the three million voters of Indian-origin in the US in light of the presidential elections this November.
The National Council of Churches in India, the forum of Protestant and Orthodox Churches in India, spoke out against the violence in Delhi, saying in a February 26 statement: “Humanity has been knocked down one more time, our houses burned, our kindred killed, our peace destroyed, and future betrayed.”
Archbishop Anil Joseph Thomas Couto of Delhi, said, “At this trying moment when communal riots have suddenly gripped Delhi, let us come forward with our prayers and every possible effort to bring relief to the affected people in terms of shelter, food and clothing.”
