Denial of permission to hold Palm Sunday procession is ‘targeted discrimination’: K.C. Venugopal

Congress leader criticizes Delhi Police for denying permission for Palm Sunday procession, calling it targeted discrimination against Christians.

Criticising the Delhi Police’s decision to deny permission for the Palm Sunday procession organised by the Sacred Heart Cathedral in the national capital, Congress’s general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal said it was not an “isolated incident” but “targeted discrimination”. 

Mr. Venugopal has written a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, protesting the Delhi Police’s decision. “The BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] can’t even keep up its so-called pro-Christian gimmick for a single week. First the Organiser article targeting church properties and now the Delhi Police has denied permission for the sacred procession on the holy day of Palm Sunday,” Mr. Venugopal said, sharing his letter to Mr. Shah on social media platform X.

Delhi Police spokesperson Sanjay Tyagi told The Hindu that permission had never been given for the procession. “The procession started a few years back and the organisers never got the permission in the past as well. No police personnel stopped the procession physically; the organisers themselves did not proceed with it,” Mr. Tyagi said. 

Mr. Venugopal also questioned whether Christians in Delhi were excluded from Article 25 of the Constitution that guarantees freedom of religion. “Since when did practicing faith become a threat? This is not an isolated incident - it’s targeted discrimination,” the Congress leader said on X. 

In his letter, he said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had participated in Christmas and Easter celebrations at the Sacred Heart Cathedral. “The decision to prohibit this peaceful religious procession represents a serious attack on the religious freedom guaranteed under the Constitution of India,” Mr. Venugopal said.

He said there were no “concrete reasons” to deny permission for a procession that had been peacefully held for the past 15 years. The decision, he said in his letter to Mr. Shah, only raised questions about the government’s commitment to upholding the fundamental right to practice and profess one’s religion freely. 

“This isn’t mere oversight; it’s a deliberate act of suppression. The government’s refusal to offer even a shred of credible reasoning for this ban lays bare its motives: discrimination dressed up as policy. This selective targeting underlines the calculated agenda to silence minority voices while amplifying others, tearing at the very roots of our secular democracy,” Mr. Venugopal said in the letter.