AHMEDABAD, April 7: Christians in the Indian state of Gujarat on Wednesday accused the administration of discrimination after it struck Good Friday off a list of mandatory government holidays.

The government in the religiously polarized western state instead made Good Friday a "restricted holiday" which Christian employees can take if they choose.

"It is the first time in independent India's history that a state government has listed Good Friday as a restricted holiday and not a public holiday," said Samson Christian, joint secretary of the All India Christian Council.

"This is sheer discrimination because we are a minority." He said Christians, who account for about two per cent of India's population, would approach the Supreme Court.

As a mandatory holiday, Good Friday held the same status in Gujarat as major Hindu celebrations such as Holi and Diwali. Good Friday remains on the list of mandatory holidays of the federal government.

J.L. Patel, a Gujarat administration official, said Christians could still take Good Friday off if they wanted but the government wanted to reduce the number of off-days for the workforce as a whole.

"The decision was taken to make holidays as few as possible," Mr Patel said. "This calendar year, we have declared 14 public holidays as against 16 last year," he said. -AFP