Congress and CPM, constituents of the INDI Alliance, have once again joined hands to support Fr. Sudheer, his wife Jasmine, and twelve others who were arrested on charges of forced conversion and hurting religious sentiments.
A Congress leader has written letters to the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, while the CPM-led Kerala government has also intervened. The episode has reignited criticism that the INDI Alliance prioritises vote-bank considerations over the judiciary and law enforcement agencies.
The Kerala CSI (Church of South India) pastor, his wife, and twelve others were arrested on December 30 in Nagpur district, Maharashtra. The case was registered following a complaint by Bajrang Dal, which alleged that the accused were engaged in forced proselytisation and were hurting Hindu religious sentiments.
However, the accused were granted bail on December 31, with the Verod Court in Maharashtra allowing their release. Sudheer is a missionary of the CSI Dakshin Kerala Archdiocese and hails from Amaravila in Thiruvananthapuram district. The Pastor has alleged that Bajrang Dal workers created disturbances.
Notably, soon after news of the arrests emerged in Kerala, V.D. Satheesan, Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly and senior Congress leader, wrote to the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister of Maharashtra seeking urgent intervention.
He called for the release of the detained individuals and cautioned against what he described as a possible misuse of laws that could infringe constitutional rights.
“The Constitution of India guarantees every citizen the right to profess, practise, and propagate their religion under Article 25,” Satheesan said, urging immediate action.
Week after week, Christians are being selectively targeted across BJP-ruled states for simply practising their faith. The latest arrest of a Christian priest in Nagpur, Maharashtra is highly condemnable and is a clear indication that wherever the BJP is in power, it uses the…
— K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) December 31, 2025
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan echoed similar concerns. In a post on X, he described the arrests as “deeply disturbing”.
Deeply disturbing that a Malayali Christian priest, his family and aides were arrested in Nagpur on allegations of forced conversion. This follows a worrying pattern followed by Sangh Parivar, of targeting minorities to fuel polarisation, as seen earlier in Jabalpur. Such actions…
— Pinarayi Vijayan (@pinarayivijayan) December 31, 2025
Political observers note that the developments have positioned the INDI Alliance squarely against the Government of Maharashtra. There are also reports of some sections attributing the arrests to the influence of the RSS, largely because the incident occurred in Nagpur.
However, many observers argue that forced proselytisation is neither civilised nor defensible in a plural society governed by the rule of law.
However, the episode once again highlights how the Church and its INDI Alliance partners consistently promote religious conversion and unchecked evanglism. Whenever legal issues arise, they use their political influence to build pressure by portraying lawful action as an “attack on Christians”. Moreover, even when caught violating the laws of the land, their conduct and demands repeatedly suggest an assumed immunity from legal accountability, based solely on minority status.
It has become the practice of these parties to portray any BJP-ruled state as being aggressive towards the Church. The reality, however, is that hundreds of churches are functioning freely, along with their affiliated organisations engaged in various activities. At the same time, they attempt to twist facts and project groups or individuals involved in forced religious conversion as victims or innocents—a strategy that operates through a well-oiled ecosystem.
