The recent arrest of two nuns, originally from Kerala, became a major political flashpoint in the state, which has a large Christian population and goes to polls next year
Ever since Narendra Modi took over as prime minister in 2014, critics of his government have questioned the treatment of Indian Muslims. Call it the lingering shadow of the 2002 Gujarat riots or the majoritarian worldview of a Hindutva ideology, somehow the Modi government has never been able to shed the perception that it demonises Indian Muslims.
The government’s image has not been helped by the hotheads of the sangh parivar who every now and then commit the most unspeakable crimes against Muslims either in action or words. Only recently, a Sri Ram Sene leader was arrested in Belagavi in Karnataka for allegedly poisoning drinking water at a government school to malign a Muslim headmaster and get him transferred.
While hate speak against Indian Muslims has got worryingly ‘normalised’, what is less spoken about is the BJP’s complex equation with a minority within minorities: The country’s Christian community. On July 26, two Christian nuns, originally from Kerala, were detained at Durg police station in BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh, accused of human trafficking and forced conversion. Prima facie the charges were trumped up by the local Bajrang Dal in this tribal dominated area.
The girls who were allegedly being trafficked have gone on record saying they had gone voluntarily with the nuns because they wanted to be trained as professional nurses. The parents of the girls were also on record to say that they had given their daughters permission to go in search of better job opportunities. And yet, the local police chose to turn a blind eye. Instead, the police took a complaint filed by a local Bajrang Dal member at face value and detained the nuns: there are even reports and visuals of a Bajrang Dal member Jyoti Sharma threatening and assaulting those who had come out in support of the nuns. Instead of coming out in support of the nuns, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai defended the police and Bajrang Dal.
‘Ghar-wapsi’ of Christian tribals has been a well-organised programme for years now of the sangh parivar and its vanvasi kalyan kendras to counter what they claim is the forced or induced conversion of tribals to Christianity by missionary groups. Freedom of religion is a constitutional right as is the right to convert to a religion of one’s choice: let’s not forget Babasaheb Ambedkar and his supporters’ much publicised conversion to neo-Buddhism. But constitutional rights can be selective: so the right to convert to Christianity is seen as forced and criminal, and re-conversion to Hinduism is seen as voluntary and a blessing.
State patronage to Bajrang Dal and VHP has meant that these groups now can move around with impunity, create an atmosphere of fear and hostility and thereby push for ghar-wapsi with active support from the men in khakhi. Ironically, the nuns were granted bail only after a cross-section of Kerala MPs met Home Minister Amit Shah and sought his urgent intervention. The Home Ministry acted swiftly, not because Shah suddenly developed any special love for the nuns but because the arrest of the nuns became a major political flashpoint in Kerala, a state with a large Christian population and a state that goes to the polls next year.
The BJP is keen to woo the Christian community in Kerala and create a broader Hindu-Christian compact in a state where it is desperate to get a foothold. Not surprisingly then, among those who were there at the airport to greet the nuns on their return to Kerala was the newly minted BJP Kerala chief Rajeev Chandrashekhar. Let us also not forget that the BJP is in power in states like Goa and has coalition partners in states like Meghalaya and Nagaland, all with large Christian populations. While the BJP may find it politically expedient to stereotype Muslims, downsize India’s only Muslim majority state to a Union territory overnight, it cannot afford to openly target Christians since that will lead to instant criticism, not just in India but globally.
Interestingly, last December, Prime Minister Modi, who has never attended an Eid event with Muslim clergy, joined in the Christmas celebrations hosted by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India where he emphasised the teachings of Lord Christ, advocating for love, harmony and brotherhood. The previous year on Christmas, the Prime Minister hosted prominent Christian community leaders at his residence for tea and spoke once again in glowing terms about the values of Jesus Christ.
What happens when nuns and missionaries are accused by the Bajrang Dal of forced conversion, persecuted and labelled ‘anti-national’, criminals and worse? Recall the horrific killing of missionary Graham Staines and his two young children in 1999 in Odisha by a Bajrang Dal leader Dara Singh, a permanent blot on this country’s tradition of inter-faith harmony. Recall more recently how an ailing octogenarian priest Father Stan Swamy was picked up by the police, branded a Naxal sympathiser, arrested as a terrorist under UAPA , even denied a straw sipper in jail until court intervention and eventually died in hospital.
Despite the constant propaganda of mass conversion, Christians make up only 2.3% of the population. Interestingly, in 1971, census records that Christians made up 2.6%. Officially, the population has declined and yet there is this constant insidious campaign that conversions are happening on a mass scale through force, fraud and allurement.
How does one put an end to this anti-Christian mindset? Maybe this Christmas, the Prime Minister shouldn’t just host tea and extol the virtues of Jesus Christ but simply and sternly call out the Bajrang Dal in unequivocal terms.
(Rajdeep Sardesai is a senior journalist and author)
