reportedly increasingly persecuted community, just days after an influential militant Hindu organization announced it will take actions against foreign missionaries and the spread of Christianity.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) or ‘World Hindu Council’ demands "a public inquiry into
foreign funds sent to Christian missionaries" and "stringent" anti-conversion laws, as it is outraged about the growing number of Hindus becoming Christians, media reported.
AsiaNews, a well informed Catholic oriented news website, quoted VHP Secretary Mohan Joshi
as saying his organization, which includes armed militants, will launch a campaign for a nationwide "comprehensive law" to ban religious conversions. He stressed that legislation already in force in some states, including Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh, “needed to be made more stringent”.
Under the VHP proposal, the law should impose a 10-year prison sentence "on anyone charged with conversion" and the government should amend those articles of the constitution that confer special rights to Christians and Muslims as “the policy of appeasing the minorities creates more disharmony and social injustice”.
NEW LAW
He reportedly added the law should also penalize foreign nationals and organizations engaged in conversion with a fine of one million rupees ($22,750).
The official suggested these measures would discourage activities of foreign missionaries who, he said, receive money from the government and abroad which was “being used for religious conversion and creating disharmony”.
Daily Dharitri, a paper with the largest circulation in the state of Orissa, said churches received 4.5 billion rupees (around $90 million) over the past three years to “finance conversions in the country”, AsiaNews. It did not specify how much Hindus and Muslims receive.
CHURCH REACTS
In a reaction, the Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar, Raphael Cheenath, expressed concern about the VHP campaign. "These are all strategies of the VHP "to discomfit Christian missions," with the support of the [Indian] government he told AsiaNews.
“The VHP is planning a ‘Dharma Sansad”—a religious convention at a famous Hindu pilgrimage centre in the district of Puri, in Orissa—to mobilize public support for their cause against Christian missionaries. These people have the tacit support of the government, so there is nothing to stop them or their activities,” the prelate was quoted as saying.
However he stressed the developments would "not intimidate" Christians. "We are not working for personal glory, we are on a mission here, and that’s important." However he warned it may lead to descent within the Catholic Church. "Now people may feel that since the Church receives so much money from foreign agencies, they, too, must be beneficiaries of [some of that] money”.
VHP GOALS
The VHP was founded in 1964 with the goal of reconverting “all those who have been knowingly or unknowingly proselytized to alien faiths and are now desirous of coming back to the Hindu fold.”
Two other associations allied with the VHP have reportedly continued to engage in violent attacks against Christians. About 25 extremists belonging to the Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the VHP, and members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) attacked members of the Indian Missionary Society in Orissa’s Malkangiri district on August 22, Christian news agency Compass Direct reported.
The group allegedly stopped six Christian workers who were returning from a nearby village, seized books and tracts from them, and ordered the Christians to attend a
meeting in the village hall on August 23.
CHRISTIANS "ABUSED"
The six were held in the room from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. "while the extremists slapped, abused and threatened them," a "local Christian" told Compass Direct on condition of anonymity for apparent security reasons.
Christians were forced to sign a blank piece of paper and their captors also threatened to shave their heads as a punishment for preaching Christianity, Compass Direct reported.
Local police finally intervened and took the Christians to the police station to record their statements. The Christians were released at 10 p.m. Angered with the police response, the extremists organized a protest the following day, blocking the main road into the village.
The VHP has not reacted to the allegations. Christians comprise roughly two percent of India’s over one billion population, according to several estimates.
