The Jesuit Major Superiors of South Asia (JMSA), which gathered for its Annual Conference in Godavari, Nepal, from February 23 to 29, 2020, has said that there was “police complicity” during the recent communal violence in Delhi, in which nearly 50 people have lost their lives, even as leaving hundreds wounded and many more homeless.
Criticizing the recent Delhi High Court ruling to for its “inexplicable postponement of legal procedures for four weeks”, the statement says, the riots were a consequence of “hate speeches and divisive politics of the recent elections in Delhi, the all-pervasive hate-politics and mob lynching of the last one decade and the attempts to appropriate ‘nationhood and religion for majoritarianism.”
Urging the Government of India to “immediately withdraw the hastily enacted discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), and initiate a process of dialogue with all concerned”, the statement asks Indian Jesuits “to initiate processes of reconciliation among peoples and religions.”
Also insisting that Jesuits should seriously “study and research on the ramifications of CAA and NRC for the conceptions of nation, citizenship and the Constitution”, the statement calls upon them to “join peaceful protest movements opposing CAA, NPR and NRC whenever and wherever possible”, even as supporting “rescue works in the areas affected by communal violence.”
It warns, however, the anti-CAA movement would sustain itself “as long as it remains non-violent yet courageous, resistant yet listening, audacious yet non divisive, fearless yet compassionate.”
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