Venting hate on Church statues of Mary and Baby Jesus

Who dunnit to the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus statue in St Mary’s, Agra?

John Dayal

Who dunnit to the statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus at the  92-year-old St Mary’s Catholic Church In Agra last night?

We will have to wait for the Union Home Minister, Mr. Rajnath Singh, and his colleague Mr Arun Jaitely to say if they were the work of Bangladeshi infiltrators, drunk youth out on the town at night, or a stray incident as will happen in such a vast country.

The Parish Priest, Father Moon Lazarus, thinks this was a malicious hate crime against the Christian community, and the Catholic Bishops of India, who were meeting not far from the church, have urged state and central governments to take swift and appropriate action to book the culprits and safeguard places of worship from “the sacrilegious acts”.

The church, in the Agra Cantonment area where the Taj Mahal is also situated, is not as historic as another Catholic church which dates to the times of the Moghul Emperor Akbar, but is quite a local landmark. Statues of Mary are also popular with local Hindu men and women not just in Agra, but also in most places across the country.

That it was not a prank seems evident from the manner in which the statues were smashed, and then a dog chain tied to neck of the statue of Mary.

In his report to the local police, Fr.  Eugene Moon Lazarus, the parish priest, said he woke up early morning when he heard the anti-theft alarm of his  car parked in Church premise and came out from his  room along with other people staying in Church campus. “We saw the side door window mirrors were broken and some people were running out from the boundary of church.  We shouted and they ran away. Four statues of Mother Mary were broken. The glass case was also broken. The head of Baby Jesus statue was broken and kept in the hands of Mother Mary’s statue. The neck of human size statue of Mother Mary was tied with dog-chain.”

The priest said such acts had “created fear in our community.” 

The United Christian Forum has recorded 168 cases of violence of various sorts against the community in the first 300 days of Mr. Modi forming the government in New Delhi. These include two murders. Six of the cases have been in the national capital, New Delhi. Statues of Mary and Christ  seem a particular target in many places for vandals.

But while the community, which feels under stress because of a sustained hate campaign by the Sangh Parivar, has been seeking government action, Mr. Modi’s cabinet seems to be working overtime to minimize the international fallout of such acts against religious minorities. Christians are “making mountains” out of small things, Mr. Modi told a delegation that called on him to greet him on Christmas eve. He said this was hurting his development agenda. In January, President Pranab Mukherjee and visiting US President Mr. Barack Obama referred to the incidents of communal violence, embarrassing the government and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Mr. Modi’s remarks have been a virtual directive to government agencies and police departments across the country. They refuse to see a pattern or religious targeting, pinning the blame on petty criminals and others. The Intelligence Bureau in fact went to  an extreme, leaking data to a leading television news channel to “prove” that  the Modi government  had a better record than  the UPA in solving the cases of cases of violence against Christians.