When claims travel faster than facts
The last working day of 2025 was a day of shock and anxiety for people in Kerala. The state woke up to TV news bulletins which shouted of attacks against Christian priests and their associates at Shingori village in Amravati district in Maharashtra. “The innocent priests and their associates were attending a birthday party of a child in the village when activists of Bajrang Dal gatecrashed into the house and assaulted the preachers, led by Father Sudhir William, the lead evangelist of Church of South India. Since the police too reached the spot shortly, the priest and his associates escaped unhurt,” said the channel reports.
The police took the pastors to the nearest police station, recorded their statements, and later the team was taken to the Varud court, where they were released on bail, said the report. The evangelists have been charged under Sections 299 and 302 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The village elder, Lakshman Devidas Shele, had complained to the police about the massive proselytization happening in the village under the leadership of Father Sudhir William. When the police came to know of the face-off between the villagers and the pastors, they rushed to the spot to prevent any untoward incidents.
Shele, in his complaint, said that a few outsiders, dressed in white clothes, had arrived at a villager’s (Ritesh Bonde) residence and began preaching about Christianity. The complainant alleged that the group tried to provoke villagers into converting their religion by offering money, leading to increased tension in the village, reports Free Press Journal.
The heads of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and CSI were the first to condemn the attacks on the “innocent and honest” priests who were on a mission to plant crosses across Maharashtra. Catholicos Baselios Marthoma Mathews III took strong exception to the “increasing attacks on Christian beliefs and worship”. But the Catholicos did not disclose what kind of worship was being practiced by the pastors at the residence of Hindus. Malayil Sabu Koshy Cherian, secretary, CSI Bishop Council, alleged that the attacks on Christian missionaries working in villages across various parts of India continued unabated, and this was a violation of constitutional freedom. Cherian did not add more to his allegation as he was aware that the Constitution granted freedom to the people to believe, practice, and propagate the religion of their choice, but not the right to proselytize.
Pinarayi Vijayan, the beleaguered chief minister of Kerala, too, was quick to condemn the attack on the evangelists who were engaged in religious conversion. The CPI(M) has to be in the good books of the minorities as the election to the legislative assembly is round the corner. But what these people forget is the good work done by the Narendra Modi government in getting Christian missionaries kidnapped in Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2015. Alexis Prem Kumar, who was kidnapped from Herat province in 2014, was saved from death only because of the state-of-the-art diplomacy practiced by the BJP government at the Centre. Alexis Prem Kumar, a Jesuit priest, was proselytizing in the region against the wishes of the Taliban commandoes who took him by force to an undisclosed location to dispatch him to meet his maker up in heaven when providence appeared in the form of the Modi government. The CBCI and the priests do not speak about the same thing, as they are under the impression that it is the responsibility of the government to save the evangelists from death cells in alien territories.
The Church specializes in making mountains out of molehills. The Christian ecosystem took over from what was reported from Shingori village and made it into global news. The gullible readers will feel that minorities are not safe in India and that they are under continuous attack, while the truth is entirely different. The missionaries operate on the age-old adage that “a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on”.
The sudden spurt in reports about the alleged attacks on missionaries is being attributed to the evil designs of a section of people who are out to tarnish the image of the Narendra Modi government. Having failed in their mission to unseat the government under the pretext of “Vote Chori”, the Congress’ first family has dusted off an old plan which had worked in 1979 to bring down the then Morarji Desai government; the Freedom of Religion Bill introduced in Parliament by OP Tyagi of the Janata Party. It paid rich dividends, and the Desai government lost the trust vote in the Lok Sabha.
The news portals owned and operated by the Church and newspapers owned by Christian business barons are working overtime to spread fake news that Christians are under attack in India. Since the public memory (especially that of the Hindus) is short, the murder of Swami Lakshmanananda in Orissa and the lynching of Kalpavriksha Giri and Sushil Giri of Juna Akhara in Maharashtra’s Palghar in 2020 have been forgotten. Other than one or two TV channels, the entire Indian media chose to black out the news.
We have to tell the world that the Indian Constitution grants freedom to its citizens to believe, practice, and propagate the religion of their choice, but it does not give freedom to proselytize. Religious conversion, especially to Christianity, is rampant in India. The Church has succeeded in converting the entire North East population to Christianity, and that is the root cause of the secessionist movements, which have reached an alarming level.
Dear readers, do you know that there are two kinds of justice in India? One for the majority of Hindus, while for the minorities. Those belonging to the Christian and Muslim sects can go scot-free after committing any crimes, while the Hindus are handed out severe punishment even for petty crimes! We will come out with two real-life cases in which the accused were acquitted of all charges or given punishment for name’s sake.
And as a postscript, let us go through what Vishal Anand, Superintendent of Police, Amravati Rural, told reporters after a thorough probe into the arrest and grant of bail of the pastors. “Any kind of illegal religious conversion, inducement, or pressure will not be tolerated in the district. If citizens notice any such activity, they should immediately inform the nearest police station”.
What the IPS officer told reporters sums up the position at ground zero. The cardinals and bishops sitting in Kerala are making comments based on hearsay.
The Vote Chori gang hopes that the Modi government could be pulled down if they rope in Chandrababu Naidu and Niteesh Kumar, chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, respectively, with reports on attacks on Christian missionaries. It worked in 1978, but this time it is doubtful whether it will succeed this time.
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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