On Sunday, February 11, in the ‘Changezi Sabha’ at Bharatpur’s Sonar Haveli, situated on Ghana Road, an attempt to forcefully convert Hindus into Christianity led to an uproar by Hindu groups. It has been alleged that 400 economically backward Hindus were tempted, and were called there, after which they were being pressurised to get converted into Christianity. After receiving information of the same, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal, and BJP workers reached the spot and called out the activities.
An FIR has been filed in the matter at the Atal Bandh police station, and it has been alleged in the same that two Christians- Kunwar Singh and Siddharth Gautam, were actively involved in converting Hindus to Christianity, after taking money from some prophet in Chandigarh. These people were making the poor Hindus drink water mixed with addictive drugs, on the pretext of providing treatment for their illnesses.
In the Sabha, some bottles were also kept on the stage, which resembled those of some medicine. Kunwar and Siddharth were busy handing the Bible to the Hindus, after which the latter were asked to take a pledge and were being converted to Christianity. This duo also abused Hindu Gods and Goddesses and labelled them to be ‘weak’. Hindu deities Brahma, Vishnu, Ram, and Hanuman were called ‘kooda karkat’ (garbage). The FIR against these people has been filed under sections 295A, 298, and 323 of the IPC.
The police personnel and the administrative officials who went to the spot recovered a magic bag with a cross on it, a cloak, a large number of medicines, and religious paraphernalia. Along with this, the VHP workers turned over 20 Christians to the police, including women, who were then detained.
The VHP district president, Lakhan Singh, and Bajrang Dal convenor, Shubham Sainthra accused the Christian missionaries of calling a ‘Changezi Sabha’, wherein around 15-20 people were involved in converting around 400 Hindus into Christianity. When Singh and Sainthra reached the said spot, it was being claimed by the missionaries on stage that they had the solutions to problems.
‘Accept Christianity and all your problems will be alleviated’, a missionary claimed.
They were also making comments against Hindu deities which were not in good taste, and when Singh and Sainthra started recording all this, the missionaries got violent and tried to snatch their phones away, and started beating them. This led to people running helter-skelter. VHP’s Shyamsundar Gupta said that the female missionaries snatched their phones away.
The Hindu women who went to the Sabha revealed that they were promised to be given 500 rupees each. Then, in the Sabha, the Hindus were shown a film based on Christianity, Hinduism was denounced, and they were asked to convert their religion, telling them that Christianity was the supreme-most religion. The Hindus were also promised the treatment of their ailments, the construction of homes for them, employment, and assistance for the marriages of their children.
