From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Apr 26: Metropolitan Archbishop of Bangalore Archdiocese Dr Peter Machado, who is also the President of Karnataka Region Bishops’ Council and Karnataka United Christian Forum for Human Rights, has clarified that Clarence School, which is under attack for allegedly forcing children to study bible as part of the larger design of conversion, has not forced children to buy bibles and bring them to school nor is trying to further conversion.
In a press statement, the Archbishop has lamented, “Christian Institutions are being targeted for conversion” and termed the allegation of children being compelled to buy bible and bring it to schools as “false and misleading.”
The Archbishop said the school, being a Christian Minority institution, “is within its rights to conduct bible or religion classes for Christians outside of school hours.”
“The school is more than 100 years old and no complaint of conversion was made anytime in this school. The school has justified that moral education, based on the examples of the Bible, cannot be considered as forced religious education. The institutions run by other religious sects also give religious instructions, based on their sacred books. It is extremely unfair to target only the Christian institutions, and whatever good is being done is labelled as “For Conversion!,’’ the Archbishop said.
He pointed out that that the State Government has plans to introduce from next year, lessons on values from Bhagavad Gita and other religious scriptures too.
“If children are requested to buy books of Bhagavad Gita or other Religions, can it be considered as forcing them to be influenced or inducing them to be converted to these particular Religions? Certainly not! Therefore, using the scripture books in minority schools to promote moral and ethical values cannot be considered as forcefully alluring the students towards their religion,’’ he said pointing out that ``the freedom of the parents to choose the school is as important as the prerogative of the management to convey certain concepts of moral rectitude and good behaviour in society. This cannot be interpreted as forceful conversion.”
The Archbishop said: “The burden of the allegation lies in providing tangible proofs of conversion in the School. Let any member of the public provide even a single instance of conversion in hundreds of Schools run by the Christian Managements in the last few decades. We are aware that the majority of Hindus are with us, and it is obvious that it is the same communal bogey, which is all out to divert attention from the basic problems, is besetting the society.”
"Undoubtedly, it is having a hidden agenda to discredit the good work done by the Christian minority, especially in the field of education, social and health care,’’ the Archbishop said.
“While it cannot be denied that one out of thousand Christian minority Schools could have been overenthusiastic in popularizing the religious books with the general public, it is unjust to generalize that all the Schools are following this policy. The parents have the freedom not to send their children to such religious minority institutions. On the other hand, can other religious associations that run educational institutions be debarred from encouraging religious instructions in their institutions, including the use of their own religious literature, outside of the scheduled classes for children who belong to their religion?’’ he asked.
There are some unconfirmed reports that the Karnataka Education Department is deputing the Education Officers to check the Christian institutions regarding the educational content that is being taught in the Christian schools. Why only the Christian Minority institutions are targeted,” the Archbishop said.
“When our Christian minority institutions are rendering selfless services to the society without any discrimination or partiality, levelling such false accusations and causing harassment by some fundamental groups and education department cannot be condoned,” the Archbishop said.