Bharatiya Janata Party district vice-president Anju Bhargava resigned from her position on Thursday, January 8, following widespread outrage over videos showing her physically assaulting and verbally abusing a visually impaired woman at a Christmas lunch three weeks earlier.
The incident took place on December 20, 2025, when Bhargava, accompanied by members of the Hindu Raksha Dal and Bajrang Dal, stormed the Prince of Peace Church in Jabalpur's Hawabagh area, alleging forced religious conversions during a Christmas lunch organised for visually impaired children.
The victim, Safalta Kartik, a visually impaired woman attending with her eight-year-old niece, became the target of Bhargava's assault. Video footage shows Bhargava forcefully holding Kartik's face, bending her arm, and hurling abuses while a police officer stood by without intervening. When Kartik intervened to protect her niece after Bhargava grabbed the child's hand, the BJP leader accused her of engaging in prostitution and questioned why she wore sindoor, the vermillion mark of a married Hindu woman, while attending a Christian event.
Bhargava repeatedly told Kartik she would "remain blind in this life and the next." Approximately 200 visually impaired children witnessed the incident.
"What hurt me the most was that she mocked our blindness," Kartik had told media. "She didn't just target me; she shouted that all of us would be born blind again for attending a Christmas lunch."
Attendees, many of whom had participated in the annual Christmas lunch for years, denied any conversion activity. Police officials later confirmed there was no evidence of forced religious conversion.
Bhargava had been appointed district vice-president only four days earlier, on December 16. After the video went viral, she initially defended her actions, claiming she had received information that visually impaired women were being "held against their will." She stated she chose not to file an assault complaint because the woman she assaulted was visually impaired.
The BJP issued a show-cause notice to Bhargava on December 24, citing indiscipline and damage to the party's image. No criminal charges were filed, and no First Information Report was registered despite video evidence. In her resignation letter to BJP city president Ratnesh Sonkar, Bhargava wrote she was stepping down to ensure the party's image would not be tarnished.
After the incident, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate had shared the video, stating that "cruelty is the easiest way to advance in the BJP" and calling the perpetrators "stains on society." The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India had also demanded Bhargava's dismissal, stating that such incidents "gravely undermine India's constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion."
The Jabalpur attack occurred during a wave of violence against Christians across India. The United Christian Forum documented over 706 incidents between January and November 2025, up from 139 incidents in 2014. During the 2025 Christmas season, the Evangelical Fellowship of India verified nearly 50 attacks across multiple states, including church burnings in Chhattisgarh, attacks on carol singers in Kerala, and vandalism of Christmas decorations in Raipur. In Assam, members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal vandalised Christmas decorations at St Mary's School, leading to four arrests.
The resignation followed the show-cause notice but no criminal action has been taken against Bhargava.
