ASIA/INDIA - Parish priest: May the new government of the capital Delhi "give more attention for the poor and the marginalized"

New Delhi (Agenzia Fides) - "The priorities in a city of millions like New Delhi are to ensure education and health care for all 32 million inhabitants. Our hope is that the new city government, now led by the Baraytya Janata Party (BJP), will launch programs that are not only aimed at the needs of the middle class or entrepreneurs, the business class, but that it will also be able to take care of the suburbs and the less well-off people," said Father Sankar Savarimuthu, parish priest and spokesman for the Archdiocese of Delhi, after the local elections that gave power to the party of Indian Prime Minister Naraytya Janata on February 8. The BJP has thus defeated the opposition for the first time in 27 years, after the city had previously been governed by the Congress Party and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Father Savarimuthu, who has a direct relationship with the people as parish priest of St. Matthew's Church in the east of the city, notes: "The Indian federal government in the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his nationalist BJP party had a kingdom without a capital, like a body without a head, because for 27 years Delhi had been administered by the opposition." "The will of the people," he continues, "was clear. And it was in some ways an expected result after AAP leader Kejriwal was arrested along with two other key party members over the past two years on charges of accepting bribes." "The BJP's victory," he continues, "underlines the ambition and pride of the nationalists. The government will have to be measured against the complex reality of a megalopolis of 32 million people. We will see what approach is taken when the city executive is formed. Today I would say that the urgency is above all to ensure health and education services for all citizens. The attitude of Christians is one of waiting: they hope for more attention to the poor and the marginalized."
Another aspect dear to the Catholic Church, says the priest, "is not to encourage the division of society along communal lines. In the city and throughout India, what is needed is social peace, not division or discrimination on religious, caste or ethnic grounds. This is something that is dear to us and for which we will continue to work with an always constructive approach," he concludes. (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 13/2/2024)

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