As large number of illegal activities carried out by the Christian missionaries continue unabated. Looking at the current situation government needs to go beyond looking at FERA violations of Church-backed NGO’s
Sandeep Singh
As large number of illegal activities carried out by the Christian missionaries continue unabated, it is time the Niyogi Committee-II is constituted. Recently Organiser had carried a detailed report on the matter in an article titled “Compassion International: Not Above The Law” (http://organiser.org// Encyc/2017/3/14/Compassion-International–Not-above-Law.aspx), but it is becoming difficult to keep pace with the manner illegal activities of Christianity-related organisations are getting exposed.
Recently a report in The Hindu newspaper,” Not Without Our Daughters” (http://www.thehindu.com/society/not-without-our-daughters/article
17527131.ece/amp/) reported, that “More than 80 sets of parents like Velaiammal and Palani, from six villages in Usilampatti, received similar staggering news last year. They learnt that their daughters—thought dead, abandoned, or killed—were alive in the neighbouring town of Tiruchi, and that they had been illegally raised in a Christian evangelist home called Mose Ministries. Illegal, because neither the institution nor its 89 residents were registered anywhere. The girls were admitted without due procedure, believing for 20 years that they had been abandoned or orphaned. Mose Ministries fed, clothed and schooled them, but in a restrictive environment—CCTVs in the dormitory, severe punishments, limited mobility, enforced religious rituals.”
The Christian organisations have crossed all limits in recent times. In March 6, 2017 issue of the India Today reported “ ‘Kerala priest raped, because temptations’, church-backed magazine resorts to victim blaming” (http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/kannur-kerala-priest-rape-case-minor-sunday-shalom-says-its-girls-fault/1/897706.html). It said “Father Robin or Mathew Vadakkancheril of St Sebastian church in Kannur, Kerala was accused of raping and impregnating a minor. He fled the scene, but was arrested for the heinous crime. The minor was raped several times before she got pregnant. After she delivered the child at a private hospital, the newborn was taken to an orphanage without informing the girl.”
But Sunday Shalom, a Christian weekly, said that the rape could have been stopped by the minor. The weekly said, “Here, the girl is above the age of 15. Let me tell you this, as I consider you like my daughter – you are also at fault. Before the Lord, it is you who will have to answer first. Daughter, why did you forget who a priest is? He has a human body and has temptations. He may have forgotten his position for a few seconds, my child who has taken the Holy Communion, why didn’t you stop or correct him?”
These statements and thought process of blaming the victims are not in isolation or just one of the incidents. On February 27, 2017 in the report “Kerala priest says women wearing jeans, T-shirt arouse men, wants them drowned in the sea”; India Today
reported (http://indiatoday.intoday. in/story/kerala-priest-women-jeans-tshirt-arouse-men-drown-them/
1/892329.html), which says : “A video posted on Facebook by user Jasmine PK shows the pastor, in an address, saying that women who arouse men wearing by exposing themselves and wearing men’s attire should be drowned in the sea with rocks tied to their bodies. “When I go for prayer meetings in some churches, especially during the Holy Mass, I feel like leaving because of some women who I see in front of me. I feel it’s better to kick them out of the church premises.
They will wear jeans, trousers, shirt or T-shirts, and will have a mobile phone in their hands. They wouldn’t even tie their hair. They do this to get attention. I don’t know why these “things” come to the church.
Here’s my question to women – “Did the Catholic Church give you permission to wear what men wear?” Okay, let’s keep the church away. Did the Holy Bible give you permission?”
Let me tell you what the Bible says. “Men should not wear women’s clothes, women should not wear men’s clothes. If you do, you disregard god.” Will you get mercy if you go against god and then act in the church as if you’re more devoted than your mother?
Bible verses say, “those who provoke you into sin should be drowned in the depths of the sea, with a rock tied to their bodies.” If you (women) arouse men, you’re the sinner. Not surprisingly, even Huffington Post has to say “The Alleged Rape Of A Minor By Kerala Priest Highlights Why The Church Needs Public Scrutiny.” (http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/03/02/the-alleged-rape-of-a-minor-by-kerala-priest-highlights-why-the/)
But instead of public scrutiny of Church alone, a proper investigation of Church and Chruch-related organisation is needed. May be time for “Niyogi Committee -II”
Incidentally, the Niyogi Committee Report On Christian Missionary Activities is a report published by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 1956. It is divided into two volumes and three parts. It is a report on controversial missionary activities in India. The Committee which was chaired by M Bhawani Shankar Niyogi, a retired Chief Justice of the Nagpur High Court included five other members, M B Pathak, Ghanshyam Singh Gupta, S K George, Ratanlal Malaviya and Bhanu Pratap Singh.
The report, set up by a Congress Party government, as
per Wikipedia, gave the following recommendations:
(1) Those missionaries whose primary object is proselytisation should be asked to withdraw and the large influx of foreign missionaries should be checked;
(2) The use of medical and other professional services as a direct means of making conversions should be prohibited by law;
(3) Attempts to convert by force or fraud or material inducements, or by taking advantage of a person’s inexperience or confidence or spiritual weakness or thoughtlessness, or by penetrating into the religious conscience of
persons for the purpose of
consciously altering their faith, should be absolutely prohibited;
(4) The Constitution of India should be amended in order to rule out propagation by foreigners and conversions by force, fraud and other illicit means;
(5) Legislative measures should be enacted for controlling conversion by illegal means;
(6) Circulation of literature meant for religious propaganda without approval of the State Government should be prohibited. (Goel 1998, 163-164)
However, the role of Christian organisations has gone beyond conversion, kidnapping and has crossed stages of child molestation and rape. It has, in fact, started to interfere with Bharat’s development and security. Looking at the current situation government needs to go beyond looking at FERA violations of Church- backed NGO’s and cover Christianity-related all organisations, institutions, individuals, publications etc. Christianity has made deep inroads in Bharat and is harming its citizens at a pace comprehended by only a few.
(The writer is founder editor of www.swastik.net.in)
