Modi Meets Pope Francis Amidst Surge in Attacks on Minorities in India

New Delhi, 31 Oct 2021 [Fik/News Sources]: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in Italy on a three-day trip to attend the G20 Leaders’ Summit, on Saturday met Pope Francis in a private audience at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. It was the first such between an Indian Prime Minister and the head of the Catholic Church in more than two decades. Last time Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited the Vatican and met the then Pope, John Paul II, in 1999.

It’s customary for foreign dignitaries to call on the Pope whenever they visit Rome. Hence, several other world leaders who have gathered for the G20 summit have been meeting the Pope one after another since Friday.

“Had a very warm meeting with Pope Francis. I had the opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues with him and also invited him to visit India,” Modi tweeted soon after the meeting with the Pope. The Prime Minister also extended an invitation to Pope Francis to visit India at an early date, which was accepted with pleasure, it added.

Modi was accompanied by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and External Affairs Minister, Dr S. Jaishankar. Modi becomes the fifth Indian Prime Minister to meet the Pope at the Vatican after Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, I.K. Gujral, and Vajpayee.

“The Pope should have been invited much earlier. We have been demanding this for the last seven years,” said John Dayal, human rights and Christian political activist. Talking to Clarion India, he said, “All sorts of people are invited. Why not the Pope,” he said adding: “Modi should also meet the Grand Imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar University and Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran.”

Modi’s meeting with Pope Francis has come at a time when the nation is witnessing a surge in attacks on religious minorities especially on Muslims and Christians. In the northeastern state of Tripura, right-wing goons with the alleged approval of the BJP-led state government are targetting mosques and Muslim properties in retaliation to anti-Hindu violence in neighbouring Bangladesh. Activists of certain Hindutva outfits have been disrupting Friday prayers at designated places in Haryana’s Gurugram for the last one month. Similarly, a fact-finding report released in New Delhi on October 21 says that 305 incidents of violence against Christians have been reported in 273 Days of 2021.

John Dayal said the big question is if Modi’s meeting with the Pope will stop the relentless attacks on Christians, Muslims and other minorities and weaker sections in India. According to him, because of the persecution of religious minorities, India’s image has suffered globally. Be it US Vice President Kamala Harris advice to Prime Minister Modi or various American and European reports, they all speak volumes about the direction India is headed for vis a viz human rights and protection of minorities and other vulnerable sections of society.

He said Father Stan Swamy’s death while under detention has further damaged India’s reputation globally. Swamy was a Roman Catholic priest, a member of the Jesuit order and a tribal rights activist. He was a Bhima Koregaon detainee and the oldest person to be accused of terrorism in India. He died in Mumbai this July.

For the last one week, said John Dayal, Vatican newspapers have been reporting extensively about the attacks in India on Christians, Muslims and other minorities as well as Dalits, Adivasis and members of civil society and human rights activists.

Commenting on the impact that Modi-Pope meeting may have on the treatment of vulnerable sections, John Dayal said, “It may not be felt from the next morning but it will certainly have its bearing on the government’s policies… and the impact will be felt sooner than later.”

Meanwhile, BJP’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has welcomed Modi’s meeting with Pope Francis. “What is wrong if the head of the government meets anyone in the existing civil system in the world? We welcome it because we believe in ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (the world is one family). We respect all religions,” the RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale told reporters Bengaluru, according to PTI.

But Congress president of its Kerala unit, K. Sudhakaran, described the meeting as nothing but an image building exercise for Modi. “Nothing more needs to be said than this because Modi is trying to build his image and it was for that he visited the Pope. The problem is once such people who visited the Pope return to India, they turn communal. All know what they are doing here in India as they have a communal agenda,” said Sudhakaran, according to IANS.