Who is afraid of prayer? The pious will say Satan is. From evolutionary stage, humankind has been invoking Gods as well as demons as divinity and devil compete for space. The atheists, of course, will have none of this. It is for sure that God never answers a negative prayer. Why then is this hullabaloo about a supplication? Delhi archbishop Anil Couto’s call for prayer has evoked so much negative vibes manifesting a new kind of intolerance. On May 8, Couto addressed a letter to Delhi dioceses urging the clergy to “pray for the country” ahead of the 2019 election. “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 said without naming any political party in particular. “Protect our legislature as a place of discerning minds; raise our judiciary as the hallmark of integrity, prudence, and justice. Keep our print, visual and social media as the channels of truth for edifying discourse. Protect our institutions from the infiltrations of the evil forces”, the prayer said.
In normal times, the prayer would have been deemed an innocuous, non-partisan act, but not so now. The missive kicked up a big row with some national television channel anchors expressing righteous indignation at the prelate’s audacity to write such a letter that they presumed was a call against Modi government; union minister and controversial BJP MP Giriraj Singh warned the archbishop of a counter prayer pitting God against God. “Every action has a reaction. I won’t take a step that disrupts communal harmony. But if the Church asks people to pray, so that the Modi government isn’t formed, the country will have to think that people from other religions will do ‘kirtan pooja’”, Singh told ANI though nowhere in the circular was there a call for the defeat of the government.
Several other senior BJP leaders, including BJP’s new Christian recruit and union minister K J Alphons, also condemned the controversial epistle. Alphons was even more loyal than the king. “There are isolated voices who don’t like the Prime Minister,” he told a television channel adding “God men and religion should stay away from politics”. He was, however, silent when Maharaj Ghanshyam Prasad Das, chief administrator of Swaminarayan temple, Vadtal, Gujarat, appealed devotees to vote for Modi last year. The Maharaj said: “I pray for the success of two people – Acharya Rakesh Maharaj and Narendra Modiji…Narendra Modi should win.”
Couto is a political greenhorn. His prayer was the cry of an anguished soul. According to data released by Persecution Relief, attacks against Christians rose after 2014. “There were 736 attacks recorded across the country against 348 in 2016.” Home Ministry figures also indicate a spurt in communal violence. However, critics fault the cleric for his politically incorrect initiative that has given a handle to the hardliners to further their hate agenda. Though a meagre 2.5 crore Christians are too insignificant for the BJP to feel electorally insecure the RSS has orchestrated a campaign alleging that the Church is trying to sabotage re-election of Modi government. Hinting at a Christian role in destabilising Morarji Desai government, RSS mouthpiece organiser recently said the Church resorted to “scaremongering” and Christians came to the streets. The insinuation belies logic in a country with more than 100 crore Hindus as it is a travesty of truth. The short-lived Janata Party government had disparate political groupings comprising then Jan Sangh leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani as ministers. The government was wrecked not by the Christians but by veteran anti-Congress socialists such as Madhu Limaye and Raj Narain who objected to Vajpayee and Advani “taking orders from the RSS even while being ministers”. Raj Narain quit the cabinet on the issue of “dual loyalty” of the Jan Sangh members in the ministry. If Christians were that powerful, how Vajpayee got elected twice as PM and Modi secured brute majority in 2014?
Slamming the prayer call, the organiser alleged that the Church “dictated and manufactured the political dissent”. The fact is before Couto, many others in the civil society including former union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie had echoed similar sentiments. In January, four senior-most Supreme Court judges went public saying that “Indian democracy is at stake”. And in April, as many as 633 global academics (Noam Chomsky to Amit Chaudhuri), signed an open letter to PM Narendra Modi expressing concern over the “repeated targeted attacks on minority religious communities, Dalits, tribals and women…” Subsequently, 49 retired civil servants wrote a letter to Modi holding him responsible for what they called a “terrifying state of affairs.” And in July last year, as many as 114 veterans of the Army, Navy and Air Force signed a letter to PM condemning the attacks on Muslims and Dalits in the country. The veterans said they stand with the “Not in My Name” campaign and that the current situation in the country is “that of fear, intimidation, hate and suspicion”.
Being a Christian, Couto may not believe in “karma”. Those who believe in karma need not worry about wrongdoers for the celestial software is supposed to fix them. Of the three types of karma – Prarabdha, Sanchita and Agami, the latter means “not yet come”, one that will take effect in the future. So, the lynch mob, killers, hate mongers and rapists beware; according to the karma principle, anything, good or bad which you do to someone, comes back to you. If Archbishop Couto was indeed trying to demean Modi with malicious intent, it is contrary to Christ’s teaching of “Love your enemies”. Luke 6:27-38: “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you…” So, as a true follower of Christ, the archbishop should have issued a fiat urging the clergy and laity to pray for Modi and BJP.
Kay Benedict is an independent journalist.
