In the race to the 2017 Gujarat elections, Archbishop Thomas Macwan of the Archdiocese of Gandhinagar issued a letter calling on people to join hands to defeat “nationalist forces” and prevent them from “taking over the country”.

The Archbishop’s letter, dated 21 November 2017, says that “the secular and democratic fabric of our country is at stake,” and calls for his peers in churches across India to organise prayers to elect people to the Gujarat State Assembly who would remain faithful to the Constitution, and not engage in discrimination.