Rajasthan Govt. may takeover EMI institutions

The state government of Rajasthan has threatened to takeover all the institutions run by the Kota–based Emmanuel Mission International (EMI), with the state social welfare minister, Madan Dilawar, declaring that the five "mismanaged" and "illegally controlled" EMI institutions – Emmanuel Bible Institute Samiti, Emmanuel Anath Ashram (Orphanage), Emmanuel School Society, Emmanuel Chikitsalaya (Hospital) Samiti, and Emmanuel Believers Fellowship – would soon come under government control.

According to a senior EMI staff member in Jaipur, Rajasthan, Dilawar came to EMI's orphanage on June 24 and inspected the premises. Dilawar also handed over pictures of Hindu gods to some of the children and encouraged them to worship these images.

Another EMI worker, James Abraham, wrote to the Kota district officials alleging that social welfare officer Dinesh Rajpurohit also visited the orphanage with several members of an extremist group, the Matantaran Virodhi Manch (or Anti–Conversion Front), on June 21.

"They [the extremists] went straight into the girls' hostel and into their rooms without knocking on their doors," Abraham complained. "They also passed obscene remarks."

According to EMI defence attorney, Mohammad Akram, the High Court of Rajasthan had recently dismissed the five writ petitions filed by EMI challenging the Registrar of Societies' decision earlier this year to revoke registration for these institutions.

Under the terms of the Registration of Societies Act, the government can take over property belonging to a society charged with mismanagement.

However, EMI's international arm, the US–based Hopegivers International (HI), has scoffed the government's move, stating that such actions were "unconstitutional" and would never succeed.

"The state Social Welfare Ministry over there in Kota, Rajasthan has sent some staff people out to kind of explore and everything else. That's a little bit of a scare tactic and little intimidation by them," explained HI Executive Director Michael Glenn.

"We're hearing from our attorney that this is something that is unconstitutional in a democratic republic like this. So, anything for them to do like this would be illegal. And, we've been filing appeals on all the other issues," he said.

According to Glenn, EMI was in dire need of funds to help them survive these court battles. "We appreciate those that have helped us financially as well as with the ultimate power of prayer. God is working and the greater the struggle the greater the reward and I know God is just preparing this ministry to make an even greater impact for the Kingdom," he said.

The standoff between the state government of Rajasthan and EMI began as early as January this year when some local supporters of Hindu fundamentalist outfits claimed that the mission body had written and published a controversial book, "Haqiqat," which allegedly denigrates Hindu spiritual leaders, gods and goddesses.

Following the complaint, EMI came under severe attack with death threats being leveled against the mission leaders by Hindu extremists groups.

Accusations were also made that the mission body had "illegally imprisoned" little children in the Emmanuel–run orphanage.

Acting on the complaints, arrest warrants were issued against Bishop Thomas and his son. Though Bishop Thomas was granted anticipatory bail by the court, Dr. Thomas along with a few other EMI staff workers were arrested and languished in jail for over a month till their bail was secured.

In the meanwhile, EMI faced severe hardship with Registrar of Societies revoking the registrations of EMI institutions, on the pretext that they had violated procedures required by law.

Besides, the bank accounts of EMI institutions were also frozen forcing the mission group to survive on day–to–day offerings and donations.

EMI operates under five registered societies: Emmanuel Bible Institute Samiti, Emmanuel Anath Ashram (orphanage), Emmanuel School Society, Emmanuel Chikitsalaya (hospital) Samiti, and Emmanuel Believers Fellowship. EMI leads a native church movement receiving aid from US–based Hopegivers International (HI) for humanitarian and educational work with over 10,000 children.