Christians are living in fear of more attacks as Hindu hardliners continue to target Christian facilities in India, with the latest incident involving the desecration of the St. Mary's Church in Agra.
A statement released by the Archdiocese said: "Christian institutions are deemed sitting ducks by these fringe elements and deliberately targeted by them to further their vested interest. This has spread fear among Christians and we feel very unsafe in our own motherland."
The Archidiocese called on authorities to speed up their investigation and take punitive action against the culprits to deter future attacks on Christian properties.
Alarms have been raised by the Christian community as six churches in Delhi have been attacked or vandalised since December last year. One of the most shocking cases involved an assault on a convent and the rape of an elderly nun, which illustrates a blatant show of disrespect for Christians.
In an interview with the IBTimes UK, Father Santosh, secretary to the Archbishop of Agra, admitted that Christians in the area have felt threatened ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power last year. He believes that the BJP's rise to power has emboldened fringe elements to committing oppressive acts against the minorities because they feel sure that the Prime Minister will not do anything against them.
Sajan K. George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), echoed Santosh's concerns as he deplored the government's inaction following the attacks against the religious minority in India, the Vatican Radio reported.
"Such hostility against the Christian minority is only increasing, while the government does nothing to stop them and the radical right-wing Hindus continue with their diatribes, such as the recent request of forced sterilisations for Christians," he said.
India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitly denied the allegations of bias and said that "all the incidents were law and order problems" and should not be related to politics.
"..not a single case [attack] was carried out by the majority community ... nor were they of a political nature or communal," he maintained.
