Modi-Pope meet seen as significant, especially for Goa, Manipur

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to Pope Francis to visit India is highly symbolic given the soon-to-be-announced dates for assembly elections in Goa and Manipur, sources said.

Although some Christian leaders in the country have cautioned the community against getting closer to the right-wing Hindu BJP, others have been keen to engage the party.

Major Archbishop Baselios Cardinal Cleemis headed the Catholic Bishops Conference of India and had requested Modi to invite the Pope to India in 2014. He saw the visit as an opportunity for dialogue between the government and the community. 

“This has an historical importance,” Cleemis said. “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 meeting the head of a large religious community…”

“It would bring in positive efforts in India for a mutual trust and collaboration between people of different religious groups. It would also contribute to the need for dialogue. We are very delighted that the Prime Minister has opened ways for a papal visit to India,” Cleemis told The Sunday Express newspaper.

Congress leader Manish Tewari called the Modi-Pope meeting an alliance of civilisations in the wake of the Taliban’s rise in Afghanistan.

In a tweet, the Congress MP said that one must discern deeper strategic rationale to the meeting. “Read visit in conjunction with Western Quad US (Anglo Saxon) Israel (Jewish) India (Hindu according to BJP) and UAE (A Prop),” he tweeted.

The Pope received Modi at a private audience at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a press release.

Briefing reporters, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla described the meeting as a “unique occasion”. 

The last interaction between a prime minister of India and a pope was in June 2000 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee met John Paul II at the Vatican.

Christians are the third largest religious community in India after Hindus and Muslims.