Madhya Pradesh Govt. 'playing politics' with pilgrimage subsidies, allege church leaders

Church leaders of Madhya Pradesh have denounced a controversial proposal of the Madhya Pradesh state government to subsidize pilgrimage expenses for all religious groups except Christians, calling it a "political gimmick."

Since long, state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan was reported to be mulling over a provision which would subsidize pilgrimage expenses of all religious communities, except Christians, which comprise a small minority in the state.

Calling the government's move a "political gimmick," Bishop Laxam Meda of the Church of North India (CNI) has warned that the Church "should not beg for such a free gift."

However, he added that if the government reconsidered its stand and included Christians within the ambit of the provision, "there is no harm in the believers making use of it – it is our constitutional right."

"What we really need and want is democracy and not gifts," the bishop said.

Catholic Church leaders have also rallied against the provision saying that they would not approach the government to seek financial favors for pilgrims.

Archbishop Pascal Topno of Bhopal, whose archdiocese is based in the state capital, has emphasized that the move is "a mere political gimmick" aimed at wooing the electorate in favor of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"The Church will never ask for any such charity from the government," he asserted, adding that the church is not looking for "any freebie."

The archbishop, however, said that the government's duty was to ensure that Christians' constitutional rights are not violated as the Indian Constitution guarantees people the right to practice and propagate the religion of their choice.

Agreeing with Archbishop Topno, Fr. Anand Muttungal, spokesperson of the Catholic Church in Madhya Pradesh explained that with the government's five–year term ending in 2008, the BJP is making plans to woo majority voters.

The Christian community in Madhya Pradesh constitute a miniscule portion of the 60 million population of the state of which 91 percent are Hindus, 6.4 percent are Muslims and the rest are Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs.

According to Fr. Muttungal, the central government already has made provisions for travel subsidies to Hindu, Muslim and Sikh groups making pilgrimages to holy places outside India, so the state government's proposal might be irrelevant. "That is all the more reason to suspect it to be political talk," he said, adding that the state government has always refused to acknowledge the "commendable services" of the Christians "in the field of public health and education" in the state.

However, UCA News has reported that a government official, on conditions of anonymity, has explained that if Christians named their holy places, the government would include them in the list.

Till date they have not made any suggestion to the government to add places to the list, the senior bureaucrat said.

Moreover, the idea is still "in the proposal stage," he said, adding that all religious communities would be given the chance to select a pilgrimage center each if the proposal pushes through.