It is happening with frightening regularity: the bashing of Christians, primarily in states governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). A meticulous and well-orchestrated campaign is underway to denigrate and demonise Christians. The design is devious—a clear method in their madness. The divisive agenda is to polarise sections of the majority community against Christians. The bogey of so-called "conversions" is always raised, creating unfounded fears that the Christian population is growing. In reality, official government statistics unequivocally show that over the years, the Christian population in India has been declining.
Christians are consistently targeted—intimidated and harassed; arrested on false and fabricated charges; their institutions attacked. Christian literature is burned, undemocratic demands are imposed, anti-conversion laws weaponised. In some places, even deceased Christians are denied the right to a dignified burial. Reports of such attacks—unjustified and systematic—come in daily and show no signs of stopping. Above all, those responsible for these heinous crimes act with impunity, seemingly shielded by their political bosses and allies.
The long-term strategy of the Hindutva-vadis is clear: they attack Christians (as they have Muslims) and in many cases, use these provocations to garner electoral gains. Hate speech against Christians and other minorities has now become the norm rather than the exception. On June 17, BJP legislator Gopichand Padalkar in Kupwad, Sangli, Maharashtra, allegedly declared: “Whoever beats the first priest will get five lakhs, the second four lakhs, and the third three lakhs.” There is plenty of well-documented evidence of such incitement. All these myths and manufactured fears are gradually paving the way for a national anti-conversion law. Ultimately (God forbid!), they seek to establish a nation-state rooted in the Hindutva ideology.
The latest episode involves the arrest of two religious sisters in Durg, Chhattisgarh—Sr. Preeti Mary and Sr. Vandana Francis, members of the Congregation of the Assisi Sisters of Mary Immaculate (ASMI), also known as the "Green Gardens Sisters." Along with a young man, Sukhman Mandavi (a resident of Narayanpur), they were arrested at Durg Railway Station on July 26. They were accompanying three young women (aged around 18–19) to work at a hospital attached to a convent in Agra. The three were charged under Section 143 (human trafficking) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 and under Section 4 (unlawful religious conversion) of the Chhattisgarh Religious Freedom Act, 1968. The group is currently in judicial custody; a lower court rejected their bail application on July 29. Notably, in a previous order, the Chhattisgarh High Court had taken cognisance of earlier cases where Bajrang Dal activists misused anti-conversion laws, raising further questions about the legal basis for these arrests.
The incident reportedly began after a railway ticket examiner questioned the girls and the man accompanying them about their tickets. The group replied that the nuns—already waiting on the platform—had the tickets. Within minutes, the local Bajrang Dal unit was alerted and descended in large numbers. The Railway Police detained the nuns, the man, and the three women. Bajrang Dal members staged a protest at the police station, pressing officers to register a First Information Report (FIR). The girls were then moved to a government-run shelter home, while the others were remanded to judicial custody.
A lengthy video has since gone viral on social media. In it, Bajrang Dal activist Jyothi Sharma is seen threatening, abusing, and even assaulting the detained group inside a police station—in full view of passive policemen. Sharma is heard yelling at the man: “Do you understand? Will you speak? Or should I hit you?” She then threatens the nuns: “If you don’t want to speak, I will smash your face. I’m warning you.” She accuses them of being part of a human trafficking and religious conversion racket, claiming that their bag contained “a Bible, a photo, a passbook, an ATM card, and a diary with pastors’ numbers.” She tells the crowd gathered in support of the nuns, “These numbers prove this is a racket. If they don’t have a racket, why would so many people gather for two nuns who are not from here? I am from a Hindu organisation. I have come to save my daughter. Who have they come to save?”
She continues her tirade with authoritarian aggression, snatching bags from the detainees and rifling through their belongings as if she were above the law. The manner in which she interrogates them—brazen and vile—would put even a hardened Nazi to shame. All of this, disturbingly, unfolds before a mute and complicit police force. The video, which casts Sharma in an appalling light, has been widely condemned across the political and social spectrum—though, not by her political patrons, who may soon felicitate her or even give her a seat in Parliament. Later speaking to a news outlet, Sharma said: “I don’t hit everyone. I just hit people who convert Hindu girls to Christianity. I’m sure those women are Hindu—they have Hindu names. It’s the duty of Hindu organisations as well as the police to protect them.” Why has she not been booked?
To further inflame tensions, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai wrote on his X handle:
“Three daughters from Narayanpur were promised nursing training and job placements. They were handed over to two nuns at Durg station, who were taking them to Agra. Through inducement, an attempt was being made at human trafficking and conversion. This is a serious matter related to women’s safety. The investigation is ongoing, and the matter is under judicial review. The law will take its course. Chhattisgarh is a peaceful state where people of all communities live in harmony. It’s unfortunate to politicise this issue.”
The arrest of the nuns has sparked national outrage. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), which has typically remained reticent and cautious—perhaps fearful of confronting the Modi regime—finally held a press conference in New Delhi on July 28. While the CBCI’s press release highlighted certain facts, its tone remained relatively mild. The Church in Kerala, which had been largely supportive of the BJP until now, denounced the arrests in unequivocal terms through its official mouthpiece Deepika. The CSI and Orthodox Churches also registered strong protests. Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Thrissur and President of the CBCI, condemned the arrests and the Bajrang Dal’s actions. He said: “This has happened in a country where freedom of religion is allowed. The nuns were attacked by Bajrang Dal activists. None should forget that nuns always stand and work for the uplift of the downtrodden.” He also thanked Kerala’s Members of Parliament for raising the matter in Parliament, though a motion to debate the issue was disallowed.
Meanwhile, opposition Parliamentarians across party lines have condemned the arrests. Some have even visited the detainees in Durg. Civil society members—academics, intellectuals, and human rights defenders—have strongly condemned this targeting of Christians and other minorities. In a bizarre and revealing moment, BJP Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs George Kurian claimed that the arrest of the two nuns was a conspiracy to divide Hindus and Christians in Kerala. He went so far as to suggest that the media should direct their questions to Jesus—a remark now drawing public ridicule and questions about the Minister's sanity.
The BJP is systematically destroying the country. They have eroded the secular fabric of the Constitution and the democratic ethos of the nation. They have polarised India through falsehoods, fabricated narratives, divisive propaganda, and hate speech. India today is a laughingstock on the global stage. The Prime Minister roams the world at taxpayers’ expense for self-glorification, even as India’s standing on every global index is in sharp decline. While the regime’s crony capitalist allies flourish, it is the poor and marginalised who suffer. They have sabotaged the electoral process, manipulated Constitutional bodies to suit their interests, and curtailed freedoms—of religion, of speech, and of dissent. Their method is simple: instil fear in every section of society.
What India needs now is a collective awakening. People must open their eyes to the dangerous manipulations of the regime, recognise the realities around them, and rise as one nation to act now. Rabindranath Tagore’s stirring words capture the spirit of this call:
"Freedom from fear is the freedom I claim for you my motherland!
Freedom from the burden of the ages, bending your head,
breaking your back, blinding your eyes to the beckoning call of the future;
Freedom from the shackles of slumber wherewith you fasten yourself in night's stillness,
mistrusting the star that speaks of truth's adventurous paths;
Freedom from the anarchy of destiny whose sails are weakly yielded to the blind uncertain winds,
and the helm to a hand ever rigid and cold as death.
Freedom from the insult of dwelling in a puppet's world,
where movements are started through brainless wires,
repeated through mindless habits,
where figures wait with patience and obedience for the master of show,
to be stirred into a mimicry of life."
India, wake up and act NOW—before it is too late!
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Fr Cedric Prakash SJ is a human rights, reconciliation and peace activist/writer
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