SAD asks Kejriwal to apologize to Christian community for demolition of church in Delhi
New Delhi/Chandigarh : The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday asked Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to apologise to the Christian community for demolishing their church in South Delhi and demanded the church be rebuilt at the same site immediately.
A high-level delegation of SAD MPs – Balwinder Singh Bhundur, Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra and Naresh Gujral visited the church site and expressed shock at the manner in which the holy site had been desecrated by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.
The delegation, which met Little Flower church priest Father Jose, also conveyed the sentiments of SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal to him and assured him that the party would raise the issue in Parliament also.
Father Jose, on his part, briefed the delegation that the Delhi government pasted a notice on the church premises on July 9, a Friday and went on to demolish it two days later on Monday that is July 12.
‘We were deliberately not given any time to apply for relief in court’, Fater Jose said, adding the notice pasted on the premises was pertaining to a temple and not the Little Flower church.
Briefing mediapersons on the issue, the MPs said the demolition of the place of worship of a minority community had proved that Kejriwal was ‘anti-minority’.
Mr Naresh Gujral said, ‘it was also proved that Kejriwal was in fact the B team of the BJP.
He condemned the desecration of statues at the church site.
Prof Chandumajra said it was condemnable that the record of the church was not examined. He said it was a fact that the church authorities had purchased land from the gram sabha for building a church. ‘Such a structure cannot be destroyed arbitrarily’, he said while calling it an attack on religious freedom as enshrined in the constitution.
Mr Balwinder Bhundur said the demolition of a church was also an attack on the secular credentials of the country.
‘Secularism is in danger and we must all unite to protect it, ‘ he said.
He said the SAD will join the Christian community in agitating for rebuilding the church at the same spot.
They said the demolition of the church had also ‘exposed Kejriwals duplicity’.
‘AAP professes to work for the welfare of Punjab but has always pursued an anti-Punjabi agenda be it demanding a share in the State’s river waters for Delhi and Haryana, petitioning in the court to register criminal cases against farmers of Punjab for burning stubble and even trying to force closure of the thermal plants in Punjab. Now we have witnessed AAP following the policy of majoritism in Delhi by ordering the demolition of the Little Flower church. This is proof that AAP also believes in subjugating the minority communities in a systematic manner.”
UNI
