The secretary-general of India’s bishops’ conference has urged prime minister Narendra Modi “to intervene to stop hatred” in the eastern state of Jharkhand. Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas wrote to Mr Modi after being sent a “frightening, disquieting and scary photo” of protesters burning an effigy of Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, Archbishop of Ranchi. The bishop said that Raghubar Das, chief minister of Jharkhand and a member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), must take some responsibility for “spiralling hatred”. The letter said that if such actions were “not controlled immediately”, violence and hate would erupt. Mr Modi is also a member of BJP. “Perhaps those leading this ideological hatred targeting the Christian community do not know what they are doing, where they are leading the people to – on the road of hatred and division,” he said. In an interview with the Catholic News Service, Bishop Mascarenhas said: “We have a chief minister who is openly sowing seeds of hatred and destroying the social harmony. This is not acceptable. We trust the prime minister to stop this.” Street protests led by Hindu nationalist groups against Cardinal Toppo, India’s first cardinal from an indigenous community, followed his criticism of legislation passed by the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly, which the BJP controls. The Church opposed an amendment to the Land Acquisition Act that weakened restrictions on the purchase of indigenous land for mining and other projects, and a bill affecting religious freedom, which were both rushed through in August. Bishop Mascarenhas cited full-page newspaper advertisements placed by Mr Das that carried a “spurious quote” along with a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi to vilify Christians, accusing missionaries of converting poor and indigenous people. Quoting Mr Modi’s August Independence Day address in which he said “in the name of faith, violence cannot be allowed”, Bishop Mascarentold the prime minister that Mr Das and his advisers “in the past few months have not shown affiliation to the ideology you are proclaiming. “History shows us that hatred which begins as a tiny spark can engulf into an unstoppable fire. As you know, the burning of effigies can very well turn into physical violence,” the letter said.