Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai accused missionaries of converting the poor through charity.
A tribal villager carries food grains to sell at a local market in Chhattisgarh state. Christian missionaries provide education and health services to tribal people in remote areas of the state. (Photo: AFP)
Christian leaders have described allegations of religious conversions made against missionaries by the chief minister of a central center as “baseless”. Indian State.
Vishnu Deo Sai, the new chief minister of Chhattisgarh state, has accused Christian missionaries of converting the poor through their charitable works in the education and health sectors.
Sai, an indigenous tribal leader took over the post in December 2023 after his pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party won the November 17 parliamentary elections.
While addressing a rally in the state capital Raipur On January 28, Sai launched a scathing attack on Christians.
“The missionaries dominate; they are a dominant force in education and healthcare, and their ramifications are that they promote conversion under the pretext of providing healthcare and education facilities,” Sai said, as reported by the newspaper. Organizerspokesperson for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a forum of pro-Hindu groups.
“It (conversions) will be stopped,” the magazine added, quoting Sai.
Father Sebastian Poomattam, vicar general of Raipur Archdiocese in the state capital, said the chief minister’s statement was “totally baseless”.
“One would not expect a person holding such an important constitutional office to make allegations against a minority religious community without verifying the actual facts,” he told UCA News on January 31.
The priest said it is undeniable that Christian missionaries work tirelessly among poor tribal people to provide them with education and healthcare. “But that doesn’t mean we are converting them. This allegation is absurd and disappointing,” he added.
Poomattam said Sai himself had studied in a missionary school and continued to practice his religion.
He urged the chief minister to examine whether there is any truth in the allegations he made against Christian missionaries on a public platform.
Chhattisgarh saw a surge in violence against Christians after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pro-Hindu party came to power in India in 2014.
In November 2022, over 450 devotees from 16 villages in Narayanpur and Kondagaon districts fled their homes following large-scale violence and a social boycott by the community.
According to a report from the United Christian Forum, an ecumenical forum that tracks lawsuits against Christians in IndiaChhattisgarh reported the highest number of attacks on churches and Christians after the state of Uttar Pradesh in 2022, although Christians make up only 2% of its population.
Chhattisgarh is one of 11 Indian states where a broad anti-conversion law is in force.
One Christian leader, who wished to remain anonymous, told UCA News that “it is a challenge to practice our faith despite the constitutional guarantee to practice the religion of one’s choice.”
On January 30, the BJP said the state law department was planning to amend the anti-conversion law to increase the jail term for conversion activities to 10 years.
However, this will “not dissuade us from being disciples of Christ,” the Christian leader noted.
Christian missionaries primarily provide education and health care to the state’s poor tribal populations, who make up about 30 percent of Chhattisgarh’s 30 million people.
The community is mainly concentrated in the Bastar and Surguja regions.
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