Proposed wakf-like board to manage Christian properties in Madhya Pradesh

The Telegraph, March 2, 2009

Editorial

LANDING TROUBLE

Nowadays in India, whenever religion is used as the basis of a policy, it becomes suspect. The form of polarization that began with the Babri Masjid demolition — it became progressively complicated through the subsequent blasts, the anti-minority violence in Gujarat, the attacks on Christians and the intensification in terrorist activity — has made the issue of religion-based groupings extremely sensitive. Everyone is wary, especially when it is the Bharatiya Janata Party that is making these groupings for the sake of policy. So it is no surprise that the church in Madhya Pradesh has reacted badly to the BJP government’s proposal to evolve a wakf-like board to manage Christian properties.

Christian religious leaders have decided to go to court against the state’s plan to enact a law to maintain and protect the properties of the church. They argue that all such properties were bought, not acquired through donation, and are governed by the state’s law regarding firms and societies. Since all regulations under this law are followed, including the submission of audited accounts, the church needs no one else to look after its lands. The reaction springs not only from a sense of injured dignity, but possibly also from suspicion. The church owns vast properties in Madhya Pradesh, which was one of the hotbeds of ‘reconversion’ of tribal people not so long ago. The government says that it has been advised in this by the state minorities commission, a body the Christians do not seem to trust. Also, the state wishes to be impartial: since it looks after Hindu and Muslim properties, why not the Christian? Transparency would have been a better argument perhaps; it would make sense with regard to religious property in a secular republic. But an atmosphere of suspicion is not conducive to reasoned consideration of a policy’s merits and demerits.