Bengaluru: With the election dates in Karnataka and the Holy Week fast approaching, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Bengaluru, Most Rev Dr Peter Machado, has once again urged the Election Commission to reconsider the polling dates as they were clashing with the Holy Week preparations.
The prelate in his March 22 letter addressed to Mr. Sanjiv Kumar, the Chief Electoral Officer – Karnataka has sought to either advance, postpone or interchange the polling dates. As majority of the Christian population is located in South Karnataka, he also suggested April 18 as the polling for North Karnataka and April 23 for South Karnataka, respectively.
Several church-managed schools, especially in villages, are being used as polling stations. Incidentally, parish churches use schools on church premises to conduct Holy Week ceremonies to accommodate large crowds. Archbishop Machado said church ceremonies could hinder the smooth process of polling.
Incidentally, the Archbishop is also the President of Karnataka Region Catholic Bishops’ Council and President of All Karnataka United Christian Forum for Human Rights.
In his earlier March 11 letter addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, the Archbishop had explained that April 18 being Maundy Thursday, Christians will be participating in religious services which is being held in churches and religious institutions all over in preparation for Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and thus will find it difficult for them to take part in voting.
During long liturgical ceremonies on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday, Catholics commemorate the Eucharist and enact the Biblical narration of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples.
It was also highlighted that many of the schools run by the church has been designated as Polling Stations, which are located within the Church premises. “Such being the case, it is bound to cause great obstacles to logistics that might hinder the smooth process of polling in those places. Besides being the Holy Week for Christians, the parish churches would attract large religious crowd within 100 mts boundary of those Polling Stations will certainly violate the Model Code of Conduct rules,” the Archbishop added.