NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi on Thursday joined a big congregation of Christians at a Christmas service on the Cathedral Church of the Redemption right here, as he continued together with his outreach to the minority neighborhood. “The service mirrored the timeless message of affection, peace and compassion. Might the spirit of Christmas encourage concord and goodwill in our society,” he mentioned.As a part of the governing BJP’s concerted efforts to strengthen its join with Christians, occasion president JP Nadda participated in celebrations on the Christian Greater Secondary College, organised by the Mao Naga Christian Fellowship Delhi (MNCFD), and dwelt on the govt’s deal with growth within the northeast, a area with vital inhabitants of the neighborhood.PM’s outreach a part of steady efforts to have interaction with minoritiesAs a part of his engagement with Christians, Modi had addressed a Christmas celebration organised by the Catholic Bishops’ Convention of India in 2024, attended an Easter occasion on the Sacred Coronary heart Cathedral in 2023, and hosted a programme at his residence to mark Christmas the identical yr.Opposition was, nonetheless, fast to focus on him for incidents of vandalism and harassment geared toward Christians in some components of the nation. Congress posted on X a video purportedly displaying members of right-wing outfits vandalising Christmas decorations in Raipur in BJP-governed Chhattisgarh, alleging it uncovered the true face of BJP.BJP’s efforts to succeed in out to Christians over the previous couple of years have met with restricted success as a bit of the neighborhood continues to harbour mistrust because of the Sangh Parivar’s antipathy to conversion, which has led to the enactment of stringent legal guidelines in a number of states because the occasion’s affect surged since 2014.By way of absolute numbers, Kerala has the very best Christian inhabitants within the nation, and the state shall be heading to meeting polls in a couple of months together with Tamil Nadu, which has the second highest inhabitants of the neighborhood.Their numbers in Kerala and Tamil Nadu are over 18% and 6% respectively, in keeping with the 2011 census.With over 25%, Christians are a major presence in Goa, however they wield most political affect within the northeast on account of their dominant majority standing in Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya.

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