An attempt of mass conversion came into light in remote areas of the Baksa district in lower Assam. This time beneficiaries of ‘Anna Suraksha Yojana’, a flagship food security programme by the Union government, are targeted by the conversion racket. As per the report, one Ramesh Bodo who had converted to Christianity a few years ago is running a fair-price shop in Helnapam village in the Baksa district.
After becoming a Christian himself, Ramesh Chandra Boro is now plotting to attract the local villagers to Christianity by using the union government scheme. Whoever went to collect the free rice provided under the ‘Anna Suraksha Yojana’ from his fair price shop, Ramesh Bodo handed them books on Christianity. The shopkeeper even convinced the poor beneficiaries to read the book. He is using a tactical approach to spread Christianity amongst the villagers. Moreover every customer of his shop had to listen to the benefits of converting to Christianity before getting their allotted rice under the central government scheme.
Shopkeeper Ramesh Chandra Boro advised the beneficiaries to read the booklet and every month gave new booklets on Christianity and forced them to read those to get the free rice regularly. He even threatened to cut 3-4 kg of rice from the beneficiaries if they refused to take the booklets. Sumit Roy, a local resident of the village said that when he went to collect the rice from the shop, Ramesh Bodo gave him four books and said it would enhance his knowledge. But Roy found those books were published by missionaries to attract people toward Christianity and questioned Bodo about it. The shopkeeper then threatened to cut 3 kilograms of rice from his share if he didn’t accept the books. Another villager said that it is illegal to preach religion from a government allotted fair price shop. The shopkeeper is targeting the BPL families of the village for conversion by distributing the government provided free rice.
Villagers said that Christian missionaries were roaming the area. Other shopkeepers in the village have also been supplied with such pamphlets. The missionaries advised the shopkeepers to distribute the booklets among young children in the villages. Locals said that Ramesh Bodo and his wife converted to Christianity few years ago. But his son and daughter-in-law refused to convert. So shopkeeper Bodo threw them out of the house. The villagers now demand a fair enquiry by the administration and want his licence to be revoked. It should be mentioned that thousands of tribal and adivasi people of Baksa district were converted to Christianity in the past few years. Though there is not any official figure, locals said that over 50 churches were established in the district in the last five years. The prime target of the missionaries are poor tribal, adivasi and BPL families.
