Indian government decides to drop 'Year of Christ' celebrations

Ecumenical News International
News Highlights
6 April 1999

New Delhi (ENI). The Indian government has abandoned plans to celebrate the year 2000 as the "Year of Christ". In January India's Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, leader of the pro-Hindu BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) which is the main party in the federal coalition government, put the proposal for a "Year of Christ" to his cabinet, which initially approved the plan, but a senior government minister, arguing that "Christianity is a foreign religion", has apparently persuaded the prime minister to drop the plan. [ENI-99-0134, 707 words]