Catholic bishops in Madhya Pradesh state met Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan today and suggested Church-state collaboration.

The meeting came after bishops of all the nine Catholic dioceses in the state gathered for their three-day regional council meeting that concluded in the morning of Aug. 12.

Archbishop Leo Cornelio who is based in  Bhopal, the state capital, headed the nine-member delegation.

He told ucanews.com that the Church is willing to join hands with the state government in setting up educational and health services.

Such collaboration would help the Church dispel the wrong notion that Christian social services were a façade for conversion activities, he said.

“Let the government give land. We will set up quality educational institutions and health service facilities and provide our expertise to help people,” he said.

The proposal for collaboration was part of a memorandum the delegation submitted to the chief minister. The memorandum mentioned continued harassment Christians face in the state.

Christians say the police have tacit support of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian people´s party), which has ruled the state from 2003. Since then, the state has witnessed scores of attacks on Christians and other minority groups.

Father Anand Muttungal, spokesperson of the Catholic Church in the state said the chief minister was “very positive” and promised to consider the proposal for collaboration. Chauhan also promised to protect Christians from attacks by radical Hindus, he said.

Christians are a tiny minority in the state, forming less then 1 percent of the Madhya Pradesh´s 60 million people, 91 percent of whom are Hindus.

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