Meghalaya assembly takes up Catholic nun’s humiliation

An opposition member in the Meghalaya legislative assembly on February 22 sought government intervention after a Catholic nun was humiliated while traveling in a bus five days ago.

Charles, a member of the Trinamool Congress, told the zero hour that the nun, who works in Siju village in Meghalaya’s South Garo Hills, was forced to get down from the bus after some passengers harassed her for her nun’s dress and Christian religion.

“Harassment of religious persons who wear their religious dress is uncalled for,” asserted Pyngrope.

Rakkam Sangma, a state minister who represents West Garo Hills in the assembly, too has taken up the matter with Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma. He wants the Meghalaya government to take up the matter with the federal government and the rulers of Assam, a neighboring state where the nun’s humiliation took place.

The chief minister, in his reply to the assembly, agreed to address the legislator’s concern and added that he has already taken it up with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswas Sarma who “assured action.”

The victim, Sister Mary Rose of the Daughters of the Francis de Sales, has been serving Siju’s St. John’s Parish that comes under Tura diocese.

Auxiliary Bishop Jose Chirackal of Tura, who is pursuing the matter with the Meghalaya government, told Matters India February 22 that the nun “is traumatized” after the incident.

He also said he contacted the chief minister and sought a probe as soon as he was informed about the incident.

Narrating Sister Rose’s harassment, Bishop Chirackal said she had boarded the bus from Dudhnoi in Meghalaya to go to Assam’s Goalpara and purchased a ticket for the entire journey.

“But midway the bus conductor ordered her to get down from the bus after her co-passengers humiliated her for her religious habit and her faith in Christianity,” the bishop said.

“Though it was an isolated place, she managed to get another vehicle and proceeded with her journey,” he added.

Bishop Chirackal said this was the first time they witnessed such an incident.

Bishop Chirackal says it is quite normal for priests and nuns to wear their religious dress and harassing them for their religious dress is “ridiculous and unheard of. in the country.”

He wants action against the accused in the case to avoid occurrence of such incidents in the future as people of other northeastern states depend on Assam for their various needs including medical and air travel.

The prelate suspects the incident was the result of the “false narratives and propaganda against Christians” being spread by right wing groups in Assam accusing Christians of religious conversion.

Leaders of some right wing organizations on February 7 jointly held a press conference in Assam’s Guwahati where they accused Christians of using their schools as a medium for religious conversion and demanded removal of Christian symbols and statues from their schools within a fortnight.

Satya Ranjan Borah, president of the Kutumba Surakshya Parishad (family protection council) who led the press conference, also demanded the priests, nuns and religious brothers working in schools stop wearing their religious dress such as cassocks and habits.

On February 16, a poster found pasted on the boundary wall of Carmel School in Jorhat, Assam, with the same demands, giving a week for the school to comply.

The poster “has created a sense of panic in the school campus,” Sister Rose Fatima, principal of the school said in her complaint on February 17 and sought protection to the school.