BJP's accusations of "forcible conversion" baseless, claim Christian leaders

Ranchi – Several Christian leaders have denounced the inflammatory anti–Christian remarks made by Rajnath Singh, the president of Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party during his recent tour of Jharkhand, calling the statements "baseless," aimed at "disturbing Christians" and politically motivated.

According to Bishop Z. Therom of the Church of North India (CNI), Singh's comments were a deliberate attempt at threatening Christian missionaries who were involved in several social welfare ministries in Jharkhand and other states of India.

"Only the Hindu fanatics, especially the outsider forces, raise this baseless issue now and then for their political interests," UCANews quoted Bishop P.D.S. Tirkey of North–West Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church as saying. "They just want to divide people in the name of faith."

According to Cardinal Telesphore P. Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi and the president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI), Singh's call for ban of Christianity and conversion in India is useless as "No power in the world" can stop religious conversions and "God's work for His people."

"Conversion has never stopped and it will never stop," the cardinal said, in response to BJP president, Rajnath Singh's anti–Christian comments made during the latter's tour of Jharkhand.

According to news reports, Singh, during his April 10–14 tour of Jharkhand, had called upon the local people to curb conversions and demand the enactment of anti–conversion laws to check the spread of Christianity in the state.

Singh, in his inflammatory speeches, said that Christians were a threat to national security and warned that the missionaries would be harshly dealt with if they did not desist from "forcibly converting" tribal and poor people.

Singh has also accused Christians of alluring poor villagers to Christianity with promises of jobs and money and has called upon the state government to pass anti–conversion law.

According to Cardinal Toppo, any anti–conversion law enacted by the state government would be against the provisions of freedom of religion guaranteed in the Indian Constitution and, hence, void.

The cardinal also challenged the BJP president to produce evidence of the church using force or fraud in converting others. "They cannot. They themselves know their allegation is baseless," UCANews quoted him as saying.

Explaining that the BJP's anti–Christian campaign was nothing more than a political propaganda, Cardinal Toppo said BJP was falsely spreading stories that several states in India were fast becoming "Christian strongholds" and a foreign enemy that could only be tackled by the Hindu nationalist party.

The cardinal stressed that Christians in India have always played an important role in the development of the nation, especially in empowering the poor, the under–privileged and the untouchables (Dalits) and allegations of "forcible conversion" leveled by Hindu extremist outfits were unfounded. "There are thousands of pupils in our schools, and we have not converted anyone by force, fraud or by allurement," he asserted.