How India is battling the dirty game of Christian conversions

Many of the evangelists in India have been relentless when it comes to converting Hindus to Christianity. One of the states that is fighting this menace effectively is the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh

New Delhi, Dec 27: The rising number of cases of conversions in Uttar Pradesh had led the government to come up with the Prohibition of Illegal Religious Conversions Act.

After the Act came into force in 2020, 291 cases have been registered, despite which the evangelists continue to make efforts to convert people to Christianity. This comes in the backdrop of 100 people from Khurja in UP returning to the Sanatan Dharma.

Now a case of mass conversion has come to light in UP's Sitapur district. A pastor by the name David Asthana and his wife were booked by the police on December 19 2022. The accused according to the police ran an NGO and had allegedly received funds from many countries.

The police have also arrested four aides of the pastor on the charge of forcibly converting villagers to Christianity. The police said that action would also be taken against some of the locals who assisted the pastor in converting the villagers.

Foreign funding:

The Sitapur police in the instant case had found that there was a lot of foreign funding that had come in for the pastor so that he could go ahead with his conversion activities.

This is however not the first time that UP has witnessed such large-scale conversions. In October a similar case had been reported in Meerut and it was alleged that the Christian evangelists had converted as many as 400 people to Christianity.

In 2017, a report of the Union Home Ministry said that a whopping sum of Rs 17,208 was donated by several organisations to indulge in religious conversions. The report also said that a major share of of the amount was donated by Christian organisations.

In February 2020, the Central Bureau of Investigation had booked an NGO in Chennai called the Caruna Bal Vikas for allegedly receiving crores of Rupees from a Colorado based donor. The funds were used to convert people the CBI had alleged. It was alleged that the Caruna Bal Vikas was using the funds to convert people to Christianity.

The various probes had found that the foreign funding for many NGOs in India had come in with the sole intention of using it to convert people.

The right to religion is not the....

The Union Home Ministry had recently told the Supreme Court that the right to religion is not the right to convert.

"Fraudulent or induced conversion impinged upon the right to freedom of conscience of an individual apart from hampering public order and, therefore, the state is well within its power to regulate/restrict it," the government said.

To this a Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice M R Shah and Him Kohli said that there may be a freedom of religion, but there may not be freedom of religion by forced conversion. This is a very serious issue and everybody has the right to choose their religion, but not by forced conversion or by giving temptation, the Bench observed.

Home Minister Amit Shah had said that the the Centre has tightened the functioning of the NGOs that were engaged in religious conversions and anti-national activities. He added that the government had brought reforms in the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). Some NGOs while misusing the FCRA had indulged in anti-national acts and religious conversions, Home Minister Shah had added.

UP leads the way:

Since the introduction of the Prohibition of Illegal Religious Conversions Act in UP in the year 2020, 507 accused have been arrested following the registration of 291 cases. Of the 291 cases, 59 were related to conversion of minors. The victims in 150 of these cases said that they were forced to covert.

The Yogi Adityanath led government has been very strict on the issue. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has time and again told officials that there must be a strict vigil on this issue.

Last week during a review meeting, the CM had said that Christmas must be celebrated in a cordial manner. He however added that there should be no incidents of religious conversions in the state.