BJP calls for arrest, deportation of foreign missionaries

A top official of India's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused missionaries coming from Canada and the United States of mobilizing mass–scale conversions through fraud and force among local outcastes, calling for their arrest and deportation.

In a recent address to the media in Andhra Pradesh, S.V. Seshagiri Rao, vice–president of BJP, warned that "teams of Christian missionaries have fanned out in various tribal areas of Nalgonda district and are forcibly converting tribals to Christianity."

According to Rao, the missionaries "promised those who converted free medical treatment, homes, education and 100 rupees per day" and shared that he had information that already about 4,000 persons had converted to Christianity in 30 villages in Nalgonda and Guntur districts and a further 2,000 in Nidamanooru, Anumola and Gurrampodu in the state.

"The 68 foreigners in the area divided into several teams that are visiting villages with the help of locals for their conversion work. The matter was reported to the Nalgonda police but no action was initiated," he said.

"Official action [must be taken] by the government who should arrest and deport the missionaries instead of remaining indifferent to the problem," he urged.

On an earlier occasion, BJP national president Rajnath Singh had urged all state governments, where his party enjoyed a majority, to enact 'anti–conversion legislations' having punitive provisions that would defeat the "plans of Christian missionaries."

Anti–conversion laws are presently in force in the states of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, and Arunachal Pradesh. Gujarat state passed a similar law in March 2003; but the law has not been enforced because the government has not yet formulated rules under the Act. Tamil Nadu was another state that enacted the anti–conversion law in October 2002. However, the state government scrapped it following the defeat of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. In Rajasthan, though the State Assembly has passed the anti–conversion laws, yet, it is pending before the Governor for the assent.