“Pentecostals converting gullible poor promising wealth,” allege Hindu nationalists

A Pentecostal Church which was recently accused for conducting mass conversions, by promising money and jobs, have angered the Hindu nationalists who organised a demonstration against the Church in Patna district.

Gopal Prasad and Kishori Sao, local leaders of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) purported that the Pentecostal Church brought about a hundred people, including women and children, to baptise them at a home in Nakipore Gorakh, in the city of Fatua.

They then asseverated that the Dalits were lured with the promise of a job paying 8,000 per month and 5,000 rupees cash.

Pentecostals claim, the allegations against them by the Hindu nationalists are biased and perverted.

John Dayal, president of the All India Catholic Union, told AsiaNews that “there is no evidence whatsoever of forced or fraudulent conversion.” The charges are “illegitimate, false, mischievous and designed to create enmity between communities.” They are, in his view, “punishable under the law.”

The men and women, who gathered at the church, has also denied the allegations and said they “dint come with an intention of converting to Christianity.”

Prasad, the BJP local leader, called for a ban on religious conversions claiming that the Pentecostals are closely involved in converting people through money and job promises.

Rev Rudal Paswan, the Pentecostal minister, reacting to the statement, said, the church was not involved in converting Dalits and the claims are false. “We never engage in such activity and charges against us are completely false."

Last week, a Christian Today correspondent, while fact–finding, learnt that the Pentecostal Pastor, was forcibly taken to a Hindu temple and made recite Hindu slogans by the Hindu radicals.

B Rajender, a divisional magistrate of Patna, said: “We are looking into the matter.” The magistrate, asked his subordinates to investigate and submit a report on the incident.