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Indian Christians and even some non-Christians are angry with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s comments lauding Christian relief and social ministries but attacking their witness to the Christian faith. “Some have a conversion motive, which is not proper,” Vajpayee said at a book release attended by leaders of the Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Christianity Today’s Weblog reports. He also said that India’s media focus too much on Christian persecution at the expense of other groups also under attack.

The comments have created an uproar from newspapers to India’s parliament. “If Vajpayee has facts that Christians are engaged in forceful conversion, then he should put those facts before us,” one politician is quoted as saying in the Times of India. The Hindustan Times doesn’t mince words, either: “Given this country’s pluralistic cultural fabric, even ordinary politicians, let alone government leaders, go out of their way to stress harmony between diverse sections. Not even by remote suggestion do they say anything likely to boost elements prone to creating social discord.” Says the All-India Christian Council: “Remarks such as the Prime Minister’s are seen as condoning the hate campaign and the canards, lies and half-truths that are being spread in many parts of the country. They encourage communal and extremist elements.”

The council fears the remarks will stir up more anti-Christian violence. Meanwhile, US Commission on International Religious Freedom may list India as a “Country of Particular Concern.” The Commission has found “grave violations of religious freedom engaged in or tolerated by” India’s government. If India does make the list, the country will be in the company of Burma, China, Iran, Iraq, Laos, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Turkmenistan, which have already received that label.

Joseph D’Souza, head of the All-India Christian Council said, “[The Hindu] refrain has been that Christians used social work for conversions. Christians have responded by saying that they do not indulge in forced or fraudulent conversions. Conversion is totally in the hands of the individual and his free choice. Christian leaders have asked for false conversions to be proved in court. So far there has been no single case which has been proven to be true. The opposite has been found to be true. In a recent case in Orissa where nearly a dozen converts to Christianity were examined by the police, it was found that they had all become Christians voluntarily. The case against the Christians had to be dropped. The RSS agenda is quite clear: …[It] wants to ban all conversions.”

October 12, 2001