Probe on Christian profiling comes up empty

The Catholic Church has rejected the findings of the Madhya Pradesh government into the controversy over the religious profiling of Christians ordered by a police circular in March this year.

The probe, which was called for after Christians demanded a CBI inquiry, reportedly has found no one guilty for sanctioning the survey to gather details of Christian population, including the number of Christian schools, priests and churches.

The probe's findings conclude that the profiling was an exercise that resulted from the Christian community's sense of insecurity.

In addition to the strength of the community, the March 22 circular sought details of financial status, foreign income, political patronage, Christians with criminal antecedents, economic sources and details of annual functions among many other things.

Officers in charge of police stations in all 50 districts were ordered to file reports within "10 days".

A letter from the police said the idea was to collect information about institutions and names of important persons who could be contacted in case of emergency.

"Due to certain misunderstanding the community's feelings were violated in only two places after which the exercise was completely stopped," said the letter signed by IG (intelligence), as reported by Indian Express.

Responding to the probe, Archbishop of Bhopal Leo Cornelio and spokesman of Catholic Church Fr Anand Muttungal said the church was not satisfied with the explanation.

The Church earlier conveyed that the action of the state government not only hurt the sentiments of the community but also left a lasting mark that the administration did not treat Christians as equal citizens.

Fr Muttungal said it was a matter of serious concern for Christians as the powerful that act against Christians were using police force even without the knowledge of senior most officials like the DGP and the ADGP.