Editorial

Pope-Modi Meet: Beyond the Optics

Opinion | Editorial | John S. Shilshi | 15-Nov-2021

On October 30^th, 2021, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a one-on-one meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican. Photos of the “warm meeting” showed both leaders embracing each other, smiling and chatting, and exchanging gifts. Reports claimed that though the meeting was scheduled for 20 minutes; it went on for nearly an hour, where both leaders discussed a wide range of global issues, including the COVID-19 crisis and climate change. PM Modi also tweeted “Had a very warm meeting with Pope Francis. I had the opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues with him and also invited him to visit India.” Soon after, the office of the Pontiff of the Catholic Church responded positively, expressing the Holy See’s willingness to visit India at the earliest.

The meeting held historic significance for various reasons. Firstly, this is the first interaction between both sides since 2017, when negotiations of a papal visit to India fell through and the Pope ended up visiting just Bangladesh and Myanmar. Upon his return to Rome from that trip, Pope Francis acknowledged he had wanted to go to India but “procedures became protracted, and time was pressing." Secondly, Modi is the first Indian PM in over two decades to meet the Holy See - the last one being Atal Behari Vajpayee in 2000. And thirdly, if Pope Francis does come to India, it would be the first papal visit since Pope John Paul II in 1999.

Needless to say, India and the world watched the meeting, dissected the visuals and followed the tweets and responses very carefully. The top clergy in India has mostly been pleased with the developments, considering that they had been insisting on a meeting between both sides since 2014, when Narendra Modi took over as Prime Minister. Major Archbishop Baselios Cardinal Cleemis, former head of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI), sees this as a fresh opportunity for dialogue between the government and the community. He claims, “The meeting should not be seen merely as one between two country heads, rather it was the head of the largest democracy and an ancient culture of the world meeting the head of the largest religious community in the world.” Similar sentiments were expressed by the clergy across the north-east states too, who were hopeful of a papal visit very soon.

However, several media outlets and critics within the church pointed out the “hypocrisy” of the meeting from the Indian side, since attacks on Christians have seen a considerable rise over the last one year, as pro-Hindutva groups get stronger with alleged support from the ruling government. An Indian Express report cited that Sathyadeepam, a publication of the Syro-Malabar Church, alleges that “vested interests” in the Church leadership were making compromises with the BJP-RSS leadership despite increasing attacks against the community.

There are also those who see this meeting as a political move to attract Christian voters. Two states that have a sizeable Christian population - Goa and Manipur - head to polls early next year. Christians comprise of 25.1 per cent of Goa’s population, while in Manipur it is 41.2 per cent. Perhaps the BJP also hopes to use this “warm relationship” with the Pope as a tool to boost its sagging fortunes in both the poll-bound states, and also strengthen its base in Kerala, which has 18.38 per cent Christian population.

Being a political head of a country, which boasts of the second highest population of Christians in Asia, it is hard to read Prime Minister Modi’s moves without a political lens. But as Christians, we must take inspiration and motivation from the way Pope Francis welcomed PM Modi – warm and accepting. While we cannot ignore the harsh realities faced by several of our brethren in various parts of India, we must not dismiss this historic meeting as mere optics, but rather see it as a great step towards peace, harmony and inter-faith dialogue.

 

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