A Christian organisation has condemned an order banning faith healing programmes at public places in a central Arunachal Pradesh district.
The Deputy Commissioner of Upper Siang district issued an order on February 28 prohibiting any individual, group, faith, or religion from conducting prayer healing, healing crusades, and healing through a local priest in public places. The district authority also banned advertisements on magical remedies for diseases and disorders under the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act of 1954.
The Arunachal Christian Forum (ACF) submitted a memorandum to the State government on March 20, seeking the repeal of the order. It said the officer hurt the sentiments of the Christian community by issuing the order.
“We strongly condemn the order because banning healing programmes in public places is an insult to the Christian community. It seems the Deputy Commissioner equated a healing programme with black magic, which is very unfortunate,” ACF general secretary James Techi Tara told journalists in the State’s capital Itanagar on March 21.
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ACF president Tarh Miri said healing crusades are focused on healing people’s minds to strengthen the fight against drugs and other social evils. These have nothing to do with drugs and magic, he insisted.
“Christianity does not believe in magic healing. That is why churches established hospitals all over the world,” he said.
Mr. Miri also referred to the stalemate over the construction of a church in Buddhist-dominated Tawang. He said the ACF is awaiting Chief Minister Pema Khandu’s intervention in the matter.
The authorities in Tawang stopped the construction of a Baptist church in October 2020 after two local organisations said the structure was illegal.
The ACF resented the non-allocation of funds for the Christian educational institutions in the State’s budget for fiscal 2023-24.
“Allocations have been made to the RSS-backed institutions such as VKV (Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalaya) and RKMS (Rama Krishna Mission School) while the Christian community, which has the highest number of institutions, is being neglected,” Mr Tara said. EOM
