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Congress leader and candidate of the Thiruvananthapuram constituency for the Lok Sabha elections Shashi Tharoor has condemned the Manipur government’s move to declare Easter as a working day. He blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of hurting sentiments of particular sections.
Addressing media persons here on Thursday, Mr. Tharoor termed the now-withdrawn decision as worrying since it came in the aftermath of a devastating year in Manipur “in which large numbers of people have been killed, violent attacks have occurred, and 230 churches have been destroyed. In the context of all of this, when the need should be to keep things calm and to not let one section of the community feel that they have been discriminated against, a decision that hurts the sentiments of some 40% of the population of Manipur is a matter of grave concern.”
He added the country has built a system of mutual respect amongst religions and faiths, and has always ensured the respect that people deserve for their special days according to their religious traditions.
His rival in the Thiruvananthapuram constituency for the upcoming polls, BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar, sought to downplay the incident. “This is simply a case of a government taking a decision and changing it when faced with opposition,” he said.
He also said that he had drawn the Manipur government’s attention not to declare Easter Sunday as a working day in view of the Christian observance.
