BHOPAL (UCAN): Christian leaders in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh appealled to India’s top constitutional authorities for protection from pro-Hindu nationalist groups.
In a memorandum addressed to India’s president, Ram Nath Kovind, and Supreme Court chief justice, N.V. Ramana, among others, the leaders of different Christian denominations, accused pro-Hindu organisations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad [VHP, world Hindu council] and its youth win,g Bajrang Dal, of infringing on their fundamental right to practice their faith.
“They [pro-Hindu nationalist groups] make false allegations of religious conversion against the priests and pastors in the community, carry false social media propaganda against us and register false police complaints against us,” the memorandum stated.
It further accused district and police authorities of siding with the nationalist groups to harass Christians while appealing to the constitutional authorities to step in to protect them and help them lead their lives in peace as any other citizen of the country.
“We are terrorised and living in fear. We are being falsely projected as religious converters,” said Father Rocky Shah, public relations officer of the Diocese of Jhabua, and one of the signatories to the memorandum.
Father Shah observed that Christians have served to educate and uplift the people of this country. They have also provided health care and other welfare services to the poor and needy.
“Unfortunately, their service to the nation [is] being misrepresented as a means to further religious conversions by pro-Hindu groups,” he said on January 20.
He narrated several incidents of attacks on Christian pastors and the faithful during Sunday prayers across Madhya Pradesh, especially the tribal heartland of Jhabua, during 2021. The priest said that the amended anti-conversion law enacted by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party government in 2021 had further emboldened pro-Hindu groups.
Against this backdrop, Father Shah said that Christians in the state “were forced to approach the president and chief justice among other top constitutional authorities seeking their safety and security.”
In September 2021, the VHP allegedly threatened to demolish churches in Jhabua district. Groups of men began visiting churches and prayer halls in villages and towns dubbing them as “illegal structures” and accusing the priests and local communities of faithful of “forcefully conducting religious conversions.”
The United Christian Forum, a human rights grouop, then appealed to the prime minister, Narendra Modi, and Home minister, Amit Shah, to ensure the safety of members of the minority religious community.
The forum also raised concerns about the local administration allegedly taking sides with those threatening Christians, who make up only about four per cent of the district’s 1,025,048 people, as per a 2011 census.
