Over 3,000 Christians from across the country have come together to say “not in our name”, registering protest against community leaders’ “culpable silence” on minority rights and other “grim realities” while participating in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Christmas celebrations last week.

“While it is certainly within his right as Prime Minister to host a reception for whomsoever he wishes, one naturally would question the intention of this reception when he has not condemned a single attack on the Christians under his Prime Ministership,” the signatories have said in an open letter, released on Thursday.

“Interestingly, while he praised Jesus Christ and waxed eloquent about the services of the Christian community, he did not share remorse or empathy for the situation of the Christians in the country today.”

Eager to disassociate themselves from the community leaders’ decision, the signatories begin by asserting: “Not in Our Name!” They underline that the community leaders could have declined the invite in the light of what has been happening to Christians in Manipur and elsewhere.

“The Christian representatives who spoke thanked the Prime Minister profusely for many things! The hard truth is that the Prime Minister and his government have consistently disregarded their constitutional mandate, be it to the minorities, the Adivasis, the Dalits, the backward castes, the farmers, labourers, migrants, etc. Hence their gratitude to the Prime Minister was not in our name!” the letter says.

It articulates the discomfort that many within the Christian community feel over the event.

“When these Christian representatives spoke at the reception, they were giving a tacit approval to the omission and commission of this government,” the letter says.

“Through their culpable silence, they failed to uphold the values enshrined in the Constitution of India.”

The letter emphasises that since 2014, in particular, Christians in India have been victims of continued attacks and vilification from members of the ruling establishment across the country.

“Christians and Christian schools and institutions have been hounded and harassed, their places of worship destroyed, they have been denied their ordinary rights as citizens and been subject to denigration and demonisation,” it says.

“The anti-conversion laws which have been put into place in BJP-ruled states are used as weapons against the fundamental right to preach, practise and propagate one’s religion. Celebrations in schools have been stopped and Christians have been arrested without any warrant and put behind bars for no offence of theirs.”

Since May 2023, Christians of Manipur have been subject to constant attacks that continue with apparent approval from the BJP governments in the state and at the Centre, the letter says.

The signatories include Trinamul MP Derek O’Brien, retired bureaucrat M.G. Devashayam and lawyer Flavia Agnes.