CBCI president voices concerns to PM

Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) has expressed his concerns about the growing incidents of persecution against the Christian community in India in a meeting he had with the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, and has urged the latter to set up a committee to study the socioeconomic profile of the Christian community in India in the light of a recent report which said that Christians were the most unemployed.

The cardinal also drew attention to the distress of farmers across the country, where grinding poverty has led to suicides.

Pointing out the ongoing atrocities directed at Christians in different states and the enactment of the so–called Freedom of Religion Bills banning conversions, Cardinal Toppo told Dr. Singh that such laws were against universal human rights and the freedom of conscience.

Cardinal Toppo also discussed issues of migration, equal rights and the need for an adoption law.