ROME, Oct 30 ― Prime Minister Narendra Modi today asked Pope Francis to visit India, a significant opening towards the head of the Catholic Church who has long sought an official invitation to the Hindu-majority country.
Modi, who is in Italy for the G20 summit, invited Francis during a meeting at the Vatican, where he spent nearly an hour talking to the pontiff ― well beyond the scheduled 20-minute chat.
“Had a very warm meeting with Pope Francis. I had the opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues with him and also invited him to visit India,” Modi said on Twitter after the talks.
The pope had been on record saying that he wants to visit India. The Vatican had even drafted a schedule for a papal trip several years ago, according to religious news website Crux.
Francis is keen to visit the world’s second most populous country to push the defence of religious freedom.
Activists say that religious minorities in India have faced increased levels of discrimination and violence since Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014.
While Muslims who make up around 14 per cent of the population have borne the brunt, Christians, who account for just over two per cent, have also suffered a rise in reported violent attacks.
The last papal visit to India was made by Pope John Paul II in 1999. ― AFP
