VHP demands inquiry against missionaries, enactment of anti-conversion law

The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Wednesday alleged that the churches across India have become a place of religious conversions and other unlawful activities and demanded an inquiry commission to investigate their pastors and the organisations they run.

It also demanded that the Central government enact an anti-conversion law.

In a statement, VHP's Joint General Secretary Surendra Jain said: "The church and so-called services offered by the church have become places of religious conversions and other unlawful and unethical activities.

He said that despite the fact that these "unlawful activities" have been unearthed many times, yet, owing to Mother Teresa's "false saintly charisma" and the church's "deep penetration in the administration", it has been getting away with its crimes. "But now, we have a long list of the crimes committed by the church...".

He called for end of exploitation of children and nuns by the pastors in the orphanages run by the churches.

The VHP leader's remarks came amid complaints that trafficking and selling of children were rampant in Jharkhand's Ranchi Nirmal Hriday, a Missionaries of Charity shelter home. The state police had arrested a nun and an employee of the organization last week for allegedly selling a child of an unwed mother for 1.2 lakh to a Uttar Pradesh-based couple.

Jain said that the sexual exploitation, child trafficking and exposure of other illegal activities in the "Nirmal Hriday" established by Mother Teresa in Ranchi is a "blot on humanity".

He also citing the case of four Orthodox Church priests in Kerala who have been accused of sexually abusing a woman parishioner.

--IANS

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