P shifts stance in bid to woo minorities in India

(February 20, 2010) Church officials have cautiously welcomed a pro-Hindu political party’s apparently new approach to religious minority groups in India. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on February 18 sought help from Muslims to build a Hindu temple at the site of a mosque that Hindu extremists demolished 17 years ago. Nitin Gadkari, the new BJP president, also offered to help build a mosque in return. Hindu groups claim a temple in Ayodhya, northern Indian, stood on the birthplace of Lord Ram and that a Muslim ruler built the mosque on the site after having destroyed a temple. Gadkari sought Muslim help for the temple’s construction during the BJP national council meeting now under way in Indore, a major town in Madhya Pradesh. He promised to help build a mosque in Ayodhya if Muslims cooperated in building a Hindu temple there too. He said his party has to diversify its policies to attract more support. Earlier in December, Gadkari addressed the Catholic Council of India, the top representative body of the Catholic Church, looking to reach out to Christians who accuse Hindu extremist groups of attacking them in various parts of the country. “The shift in the stance of the new BJP leader is welcome, provided it comes from his heart,” says Father Cherian Pulickal, spokesperson of Indore diocese.Father Nicholas Maris, who heads the Divine Word congregation’s Indore-based Central India Province, welcomed Gadkari’s announcement, but was skeptical of his sincerity.