After Delhi Archbishop’s controversial letter, the Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy has asked the government to cease all relations with the Vatican embassy in Delhi. He tweeted:
The PM must direct MEA to scrap the diplomatic relations with Vatican and seal the its Embassy in Chanakyapuri because the Archbishop is a formal nominee of the Vatican
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) May 23, 2018
Subramanian Swamy’s tweet refers to the massive controversy being provoked by the Delhi Archbishop Anil Joseph Thomas Couto who on May 8th, wrote a letter targeting the incumbent government, where he said: “We are witnessing a turbulent political atmosphere which poses a threat to the democratic principles enshrined in our Constitution and the secular fabric of our nation.” The Archbishop’s letter went on to mention the 2019 General Elections and he asked the followers to observe a day of fast on every Friday for the spiritual renewal of the nation. It seems the Archbishop has began 2019 Election campaign even before Modi Ji.
Subramanian Swamy in his tweet mentioned that the Archbishop is a Vatican nominee, which makes it quite clear what the Vatican’s perception about India is. The Vatican City is a nation-state which raises the question that why should a person appointed by some other nation be allowed to interfere in our national affairs? With this letter it only shows that the Vatican is directly interfering in the matters of our country through its appointed Archbishop. This implies a direct threat to the sovereignty of our country. They should not forget that an interference in an internal matters of a country is a violation of the international laws.
According to the book ‘Breaking India’ written by Rajiv Malhotra, where he talked about Church being indulged in anti-India activities. Malhotra in his book further mentioned about the Church creating a brand new identity called the Dravidian Christianity. The Dravidian identity is now being rapidly Christianized. More and More Tamil leaders are embracing the Dravidian identity resulting in a north-south divide and animosity among the populace of India, particularly in the Southern Part. Back in 2012 Bishop Ambrose funded the protest against Koodankulam Nuclear plant. His two NGO’s received 54 crore to fund the agitation. Most of the poor villagers who joined the protest against Koodankulam Nuclear plant were influenced by the village priest. This shows the level of influence church holds among its followers.
The religious campaign aimed at influencing Indian politics is not limited to the Delhi Archbishop. In fact, the letter forwarded by the Delhi Archbishop has received the support of other church leaders across India. A church leader from Jharkhand, Tomson Thomas stated that the prayer is necessary to build peace and harmony. Similarly, Maria Stephen, public relations officer for the bishops’ council in Madhya Pradesh opined that the prayers for influencing elections to be carried out with enthusiasm across the country. What is more dangerous is the fact that they are hopeful of this practice spreading to other religious communities, whereby religious institutions will try to influence elections taking place in the country.
The reason why all the Churches are rattled could be because the Modi government cancelled the FCRA license of more than 5,000 NGO’s, which happens to be a major source of funding for these Churches. According to the Times of India report during FY16, Believers Church and associated organisations had received a whopping Rs 1,348.65 crore as foreign aid.
When an enemy plays a dirty game through non-state actors, it is done clandestinely. Whether it is terrorism, separatism or evangelism , nobody acknowledges the perpetrators. However, here we have a case where they have made it pretty clear to us about what they think and what they’ll do about it in our country. This is a reason enough to take strong action against the Vatican. Shutting down their embassy might be a good move.