Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday expressed concern over reports of attacks against members of the Christian community, saying any such incident amounts to an assault on the values of the entire nation.
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Extending Christmas greetings in Thiruvananthapuram, Tharoor spoke to the media and said that respect for the cultural and religious traditions of all communities has always been at the core of Kerala’s political and social ethos.
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“When people of a community are assaulted, every Indian is assaulted,” he told news agency PTI, underlining the need for unity and mutual respect in a diverse society.
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{{/usCountry}}Tharoor added that safeguarding pluralism and ensuring harmony among different faiths remain essential to preserving Kerala’s long-standing tradition of inclusive politics. “Respect for the cultural and religious traditions of all communities is central to Kerala’s politics,” he said, as quoted by the agency.
This comes in the backdrop of a protest by members of the Bajrang Dal on Wednesday outside St Alphonsus Cathedral Church in Bareilly, UP, alleging that a Christmas programme organised there had portrayed Hindu religion and society in an objectionable manner.
The protesters gathered near the church’s main gate recited the Hanuman Chalisa and raised religious slogans, claiming that certain audio-visual skits performed by school students during the event misrepresented issues related to religious conversion, Hindu temples and Hindu society, said a separate report by PTI.
In another similar incident, a BJP leader in Madhya Pradesh triggered controversy after a video surfaced online that allegedly showed her arguing aggressively with a visually impaired woman inside a church. The woman is heard questioning the visually impaired woman for bringing a young girl to the church “among Christians.”
(With inputs from PTI)