The annual Palm Sunday procession in Delhi April 13 banned by the local police over “law and order and traffic concerns,” was met with fierce and swift criticism from Catholics and free speech advocates in the region.

The flurry of condemnation began with the coalition of Catholic Associations of the Archdiocese of Delhi (CAAD), in a press statement on Palm Sunday expressing that the faithful were “deeply hurt and disappointed by the decision of the Delhi Police to deny permission for the Annual Way of the Cross scheduled for Palm Sunday.”

“Though the archdiocese had applied for permission for the annual procession a month ago, police ‘cited law and order and traffic concerns’ to deny the permission for the program only late Saturday night [April 12]. That denied us even the opportunity to move the court to challenge it,” Ephrem Jacob, CAAD secretary-general, told the Register April 15.

“It is difficult to accept, especially when other communities and political groups are routinely granted permissions for processions and rallies, even during peak hours on working days. We Christians feel hurt about our constitutional right to religious freedom being denied,” Jacob pointed out. 

India’s secular political parties also strongly supported the Catholic protest against the ban on the Archdiocese of Delhi’s annual Holy Week procession. The ban, enacted by the police under the Hindu nationalist BJP government, was widely criticized as a denial of fundamental rights to Christians.

Since 2013, the CAAD statement said, the Annual Way of the Cross of the Delhi Archdiocese has been conducted with “utmost discipline, peace, and full cooperation with the authorities” from St. Mary’s Church in Old Delhi to Sacred Heart Cathedral in New Delhi, covering a distance of four miles.

“Not once has there been a report of traffic disruption or law and order issue linked to our event. The denial of permission this year feels biased and unfair, casting a shadow on the principles of equal treatment and religious freedom,” stated CAAD. 

“We are disappointed that permission was denied to carry on our regular procession. But as law-abiding citizens, we decided to hold the Way of the Cross in the cathedral compound itself,” Archbishop Anil Couto of Delhi said at the beginning of the Way of the Cross on Palm Sunday afternoon.

Reiterating that “in Delhi — and across India — have always been a peaceful and law-abiding community,” CAAD urged the authorities “to act judiciously and ensure that justice and equality are upheld. 

“Such actions [should] not create a sense of exclusion or doubt in the minds of minorities who contribute positively and peacefully to the nation’s fabric.”

Supported in Secular Realm

Following this statement from the local Church, major secular political parties decried the “insult to the Christian community.”

“Religious processions are an integral part of many faiths in India and restricting them without transparent and justifiable reasons undermines the secular fabric of our democracy,” said K.C. Venugopal, general secretary of the main opposition Congress Party, in his letter to Amit Shah, the home minister of India, under whose control the Delhi police functions.

Describing the denial of permission as a “deliberate act of suppression,” Venugopal pointed out, it “raises questions about the government’s commitment to upholding the fundamental right to practice and profess one’s faith freely.” 

In the Christian heartland of southern Kerala state, Pinarayi Vijayan, the Communist Party’s chief minister of Kerala, criticized the police’s denial of permission for the procession. 

“This violates the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom and secular values,” Vijayan said. “Such actions, which undermine the religious beliefs of minorities, are not in line with a pluralistic society,” he pointed out.

The All India Catholic Union (AICU), a national lay network, also condemned the Way of the Cross ban in the Indian capital.

“The AICU unequivocally condemns the denial of police permission to the Delhi Catholic church for the procession. This effective ban on the procession violates the minority rights of the Catholic community to carry out with the traditional festivities attached with Palm Sunday,” the AICU said in a press statement.

“This [decision] sets a bad precedent, and also vitiates the secular environment in the country as it can be seen as targeting one group,” the lay forum said.

Ongoing Persecution

Sadly, this ban isn’t part of a new trend, according to one local Catholic.

“Over the years, the Christian community has been looking forward to their major festivals with tepidity about belittling their holy days. Some kind of insults to the community would emerge around the holy festivals,” observed John Dayal, an outspoken Catholic activist and news columnist based in New Delhi. 

“It started with the federal BJP government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, declaring Christmas to be ‘Good Governance Day’ in 2014, as tribute to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, first BJP prime minister of the country during 1998-2004,” he explained.

“Last year, the country witnessed a lot of protests against the BJP government in troubled Manipur, making both Good Friday and Easter working days for government staff,” Dayal added.

The order curtailing religious observance in Manipur, a state in the northeast bordering Myanmar, where Christians account for more than 40% of the state’s 3.7 million people, evoked orchestrated protests, forcing the government to reverse the order. 

Similarly, Christians had to protest on several occasions in different states and even go to court to avoid Good Friday being made a work day for government and bank employees and to protest the holding of national competitive exams on Easter Sunday.