Protect India's minorities

The persecution of minorities is on the increase in recent years is amply evident

Two nuns travelling along with two novitiates from New Delhi to Odisha's Rourkela by the Haridwar-Puri Kalinga Utkal Express on March 19 were harassed by some youths of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (the student wing of the Bhartiya Janata Party).

While the nuns of the Sacred Heart Congregation of Delhi province were in their religious attire, the novitiates were in their normal gear. When the goons tried to initiate a talk with the four women passengers, they cold-shouldered them. The irked youths began accusing the nuns of taking the novitiates for forced conversion. When they demanded that they show their Aadhaar card, the girls informed that they were Christians already and even produced the Aadhaar card as proof of their being so. This, despite the fact that these rowdy elements had no authority to question or check the Aadhaar cards.

Despite the two postulants proving their credentials, the vigilantes continued to harass them and went to the extent of informing the Railway Police helpline and a VHP activist, of two nuns taking two women along with them for conversion.

Their ordeal did not end there. When the train reached Jhansi railway station, Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel began questioning the four and then asked them to detrain. From 8 pm till midnight, these hapless women were detained at the GRP post for questioning. A formal complaint was lodged against the four by a local resident of Jhansi who had travelled in the train.

Around midnight, they were allowed to go after the intervention of local officials of St Jude’s Shrine, who took them to their place for stay and arranged their departure the following day.

This was not the first instance when Christian passengers were asked to detrain. Earlier, on July 22, 2017, four women including a nun were forced to get off the train at Satna railway station by the GRP and Hindutva activists on the charge of taking a girl to Bhopal to convert her to Christianity. On investigation by the sub-divisional magistrate and the GRP in-charge, the allegations were found to be baseless and they were released.

But for the elections that were scheduled to take place in Kerala, the incident would not have drawn much attention. On March 24, addressing a poll rally in Kochi with a Christian population of nearly 40%, Union Home Minister Amit Shah assured “the people of Kerala that the culprits behind this incident will be brought to justice at the earliest". As the incident became an election issue, two activists of the VHP and Gau Raksha Samiti were rounded up for breach of peace.

What is shocking is the statement of Arun Kumar, Director General of Police of the Railway Protection Force, that no wrong has been done as “any person can inform the police in order to prevent any cognisable offence". The RPF escort in the train could have checked the veracity of statements of the four women and put a lid on the issue. But the mindset of police being what it is, they chose to detain the four women for three hours for no fault. Were the statements of the two postulants and their Aadhaar cards not enough to prove their credentials?

When senior officers give such ridiculous statements, the goons and their own subordinates get very clear signals. They can choose to harass minorities at will and the powers that be will turn a blind eye.

In March this year, activists of the Gau Rakshak Dal led by its district head barged into the house of a person named Mubin in Mewat. On finding a cow and a bull and some machete, they got an FIR registered that the place was being used for cow slaughter. This drew the ire of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which questioned the authority of the vigilantes to raid houses of denizens and observed that “such actions are prima facie illegal and amount to taking law into their own hands by private individuals. This is contrary to the Rule of Law”.

What is baffling is the fact that the Bichhor Police Station immediately filed an FIR under Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Act 2015 and IPC without application of mind.

That persecution of minorities is on the increase in recent years is amply evident from the figures released by the Alliance Defending Freedom. From 147 attacks on Christians in 2014, the figure shot up to 177 in 2015, 208 in 2016, 240 in 2017, 290 in 2018 and 325 in 2019. The Religious Liberty Commission of the Evangelical Fellowship of India reports that there were 327 incidents of attacks on Christians last year in which five people were killed and six churches razed to the ground. With 95 incidents, Uttar Pradesh tops the list, followed by Chhattisgarh with 55.

According to the Open Doors International World Watch list, India has ranked 10th for the last three consecutive years among countries listed as most dangerous for Christians. It was at 28th position in 2014. If the present trend of persecuting minorities continues, days may not be far off when we will overtake the nine countries that are above us in the ranking.

The bogey of conversions touted by fundamentalists needs to be demolished. Had conversions to Christianity taken place in the way it is projected, the Christian population should have cranked up and not dwindled to 2.3 % (2011 Census) from 2.44% (1981 Census).

In an article that Justice (Retd) Markandey Katju wrote recently about the Jhansi incident, he stated that "the allegations that they do forcible conversions is palpably false”. Nothing can be farther from the truth. The perceptions about Christians need to change and the government needs to come down heavily with punitive action on fundamentalists who shame the country by persecuting Christians and Muslims. We cannot allow our global image to be tarnished by hooligans who are on a rampage with impunity.

(The writer is Inspector General of Police (Retd), CRPF)