Church leaders have condemned the placing of portraits of Hindu goddesses inside a Christian school in a central Indian state by the student wing of the ruling right-wing pro-Hindu party.
Some 50 activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (All India Students’ Council), the student body of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), forced their way into St. Peter Higher Secondary School in Jhabua diocese in Madhya Pradesh on July 27.
They demanded the management remove statues of St. Peter and Mother Mary and installed portraits of the goddess Saraswati, who is considered the patron of knowledge under Hinduism and Bharat Mata (Mother India) on the school premises.
They warned against removing the portraits.
“This is a serious matter of concern,” said Bishop Peter Rumal Kharadi of Jhabua.
The prelate condemned the “targeted attacks on a Christian school that has been imparting education” for over a quarter of a century.
This is the second incident in the diocese in the past 30 days, the prelate told UCA News on July 29.
This story was originally published in ucanews.com. Read the full story here.