Church sources said the Mangalore bishop also made an appeal to Christians, who have taken to the streets against the attacks, to withdraw their agitation.
Manmohan calls up Karnataka CM, governor to curb Mangalore menaceNEW DELHI Even as the Catholic Church alleged on Monday the “chief agenda” of the ongoing violence against Christians in some parts of the country was to trigger “social polarisation on the lines of religious beliefs”, prime minister Manmohan Singh spoke to Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa and governor Rameshwar Thakur.
Union labour minister and senior Congress leader Oscar Fernandes, who hails from Mangalore, the latest centre of the violent activity, took up the matter with the prime minister, who, in turn, called up Yeddyurappa and Thakur asking them to take all necessary steps to end the violence and ensure communal harmony “at any cost”.
Church sources said the Mangalore bishop also made an appeal to Christians, who have taken to the streets against the attacks, to withdraw their agitation.
Suspected Bajrang Dal members attacked 14 churches in parts of coastal and Malnad districts of Karnataka, protesting alleged conversion of Hindus to Christianity by missionaries.
Maintaining that right-wing groups were using “conversion” as a bogey to attack Christians, Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI), the apex body of the Church in India, said, “The Christian community continues to render its services to all sections of Indian society without discrimination. Nevertheless, baseless allegations of fraudulent conversion have been hurled at it for long by certain vested interests whose chief agenda seems to be social polarisation on the lines of religious beliefs.”
BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad, while condemning the attacks, said, “It was equally condemnable that evangelical Christians circulated some pamphlets insulting Hindu gods.”
CBCI president cardinal Varkey Vithayathil said, “The heightened attacks on Christians, their dwellings and places of worship in different parts of the country are a
manifestation of the growing intolerance among certain sections of society that blatantly defy the constitutional rights of the citizens of this country.
“We, as responsible citizens of India, will not succumb to their divisive tactics, but continue to work, in the spirit of Christ our Master, for the unity, integrity and progress of the nation……. It is not to be construed as weakness, but a preferred option based on sound principles of civilised living.”
k_benedict@dnaindia.net 
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