Faisalabad: Human Rights Focus Pakistan (HRFP) in collaboration with Global Human Rights Defense (GHRD) observed International Human Rights Day 201
By T.C.Malhotra CNSNews.com Correspondent August 22, 2001 New Delhi (CNSNews.com) - A potentially explosive row is simmering here, after Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee criticized the activities of Christian missionaries in india. Po
Observers saw the prime minister's as an attempt to reassure the RSS that the ruling party was not deviating from pro-Hindu policies. The RSS welcomed Vajpayee's statement as an endorsement of its view that forcible Christian conversations were being carried out. Hindu fundamentalists maintain that Christians are involved in "forced conversions" of poor Hindus, even though there are no independent figures to substantiate the claim. They charge that more than 200,000 of the 22.5 million Christians are converts from Hindu.
Many missionaries run schools, dispensaries and old age homes in poor areas of India. Hindu organizations like the RSS and the World Hindu Council accuse some missionaries of luring poor Hindus into Christianity by offering them money, food, jobs and other Incentives. Christians fear the sentiment may result in more violence against their community. Among other incidents in recent years, an Australian missionary and his two sons, aged 7 and 10, were burnt to death five years ago while they slept in their vehicle in the eastern province of Orissa. Their killers doused the vehicle with petrol, lit it and then prevented a handful of locals from trying to rescue the trapped trio. Until his death, Graham Staines had been working with leprosy patients for 32 years. Right to religion is a fundamental right under the Indian constitution, which confers upon every citizen the right to practice his or her own religion.
However, the issue of conversion has been a topic of lengthy public debate in India with some quarters suggesting that it should be constitutionally banned. RSS spokesman in New Delhi, M.G. Vaidya, said while the organization backed Vajpayee's statement, they did not believe it had been intended to cover all missionaries.
"It is wrong to say that the prime minister has tarred every missionary with the same brush. There are some missionaries who are doing sincere work, and they need not worry about the impact of his statement," Vaidya said.
You May Also Like
HYDERABAD: (By Abbas Kassar) Human Rights Friends Organization and National Minority Network took out a rally and held seminar on international hum
Washington DC: (ChristianHeadlines.com) A 14-year-old Christian girl was abducted from her home outside of Karachi Pakistan, forced to convert to I

On demand of our readers, I have decided to release E-Book version of "Trial of Pakistani Christian Nation" on website of PCP which can also be viewed on website of Pakistan Christian Congress www.pakistanchristiancongress.org . You can read chapter wise by clicking tab on left handside of PDF format of E-Book.