Moradabad: The freedom to practice one’s religion is becoming extremely difficult, especially in the communally divided state of Uttar Pradesh. Reportedly, workers from Bajrang Dal (BD), a right-wing Hindu militant organisation, stalled a Christian event on June 2 alleging that forced conversions were taking place.
Image Courtesy: ANI
As reported by ANI, BD workers stalled a Christian event and handed over its organisers to police levying accusations of religious conversion on them.
Speaking to ANI, one of the BD workers said, “We learned that in Kamal Barat Ghar near Jhanjharpur police station a convention was being organised by some Christian clerics. It has been happening for the last three months and every Sunday new women are lured into it. They are persuaded to adopt Christianity and are offered to convert for good health and money. We have caught them red-handed and have brought them to the police. We will also register a case.”
A woman, one of the accused for forced conversion has denied all the allegations. She said, “There is no such thing. We only gather at that place to pray. Most people who attend it are our relatives.”
Reportedly, the organisers of the event as well as the BD workers were brought to the police station and the investigation is underway.
While the Hindutva activists are free to convert/reconvert people and organise ‘ghar wapsi’, Islam or Christian minorities are constantly being attacked for practicing their faith and talking about it in public. Are we then on the path of a ‘new India’ deprived of its Constitutional principles of secularism and fraternity? Time will tell!
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