Creating A "False Narrative" — Centre In Supreme Court Punches Holes In Claims Of Alleged Attacks On Christians

Only 232 cases of alleged attacks on Christian institutions and priests were reported to police in eight states like Bihar and Chhattisgarh, out of a total of 495 alleged cases.

Private land and family disputes have been falsely portrayed as "communal targeting" to "create a false narrative" about India.

This was part of an affidavit filed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) before the Supreme Court.

Stating that India is a "vibrant pluralistic society" founded on strong democratic principles, the MHA disputed data alleging communal targeting of Christians and their institutions, calling it exaggerated and wrong.

The petitioners, according to the MHA, were trying to keep "the pot boiling" to damage India's image abroad.

The MHA's affidavit was presented to a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala while they were hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Reverend Peter Machado of the National Solidarity Forum and Reverend Vijayesh Lal of Evangelical Fellowship of India claiming violence against members of the Christian community.

“Even family feuds and private land disputes being shown as communal targeting,” the Centre said, adding, “The attempt of the petitioner is to paint a particular false picture for aims unknown to it…the country is governed by the rule of the law and the attempt of the petitioner to create a false narrative through the present petition is an attempt to short circuit the process of law followed by the entire country.”

According to the affidavit filed by P Venukuttan Nair, Deputy Secretary of the MHA, the majority of the incidents (263 out of 495) listed by the petitioner's counsel have not been reported to state governments. However, out of the 232 incidents that were reported, 73 of them were resolved amicably with mutual agreement between the parties, as mentioned by the MHA.

“These 73 incidents were related to land dispute, family dispute, superstitious practices, violation of Covid-19 guidelines and other trivial issues. The FIRs or non-cognizable offence reports (NCRs) were registered in the remaining 155 cases,” it said.

MHA reported 334 arrests made across these eight states.

The Centre argued that the petitioners relied on sources such as press reports to gather information. These reports attempted to present criminal cases in which the victim was of a particular religion as instances of religiously motivated violence. However, the Centre argued that there was no factual basis for such presumptions.

The PIL petitioners overstated the incidents of Christian persecution in their report, which may have included false or incorrectly portrayed events, according to the Centre.