New Delhi: A week after four Christian women including two nuns were harassed in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi, the National Commission for Minorities said the incident “reeks of politics”.
“The incident occurred in Uttar Pradesh but is resonating in Kerala because elections are underway there,” NCM Vice-Chairman Atif Rasheed told ThePrint.
Rasheed was referring to the political outcry that followed the incident with the nuns, who hailed from Kerala. Pinarayi Vijayan, the state’s chief minister, also wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah asking him to take action against the accused.
The minorities commission member further noted that while the episode appeared political in nature, he has directed authorities to file a report.
“Even though the whole episode reeks of politics, we have already taken suo moto cognisance of the incident. This despite the fact that we haven’t received any official complaint yet. We have also directed the Jhansi District Magistrate to file a report. We had sent our notice on 25 March and the district authorities are expected to reply by 5 April,” said Rasheed.
“Depending on the report filed by the district authorities we will take due action,” he added.
The vice-chairman is the lone member of the minority panel whose mandate includes monitoring the functioning of the safeguards for minorities provided in the Constitution and looking into specific complaints regarding deprivation of rights of minorities, among others.
The seven-member commission has been operating with one member since November 2020.
Also read: Bajrang Dal denies role in Kerala nuns harassment, says ‘church lobby’ trying to defame it
The incident
On 19 March, two nuns and two postulants (nuns in training) were allegedly verbally harassed and forced to deboard a train at the Jhansi station by Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel and fellow passengers, identified as members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the RSS.
The nuns were falsely accused of engaging in forced religious conversion.
The episode came to light after a video of the incident went viral last week. In the video, the postulants can be seen trying to explain that they were already Christian and were on their way from Delhi for training. But the four women were still asked to deboard the train.
In a detailed statement, Naeem Khan Mansuri, the Superintendent of Railway Police, Jhansi, said some members of the ABVP suspected the nuns of trying to forcefully convert the girls.
“There were some members of the ABVP who were returning from a training camp in Rishikesh on board the Utkal express to Jhansi…These members of the ABVP suspected that these two nuns were taking the other two women for conversion because the nuns were speaking to the other ladies. On this suspicion, they informed the Railway Protection Force who in turn informed the railway police,” said Mansuri in a video statement.
He added: “These ABVP members also gave a written complaint about conversion. I reached the spot and made inquiries. These inquiries revealed that the two other women were from Odisha’s Rourkela and were under training.”
Meanwhile, despite the police identifying the accused as ABVP members, the minorities commission said that it will wait for the FIR to take further action.
“Where is it mentioned that they are ABVP members? Let the report come and then we will decide action to be taken accordingly,” Rasheed said.
Also read: Jhansi train incident with nuns shows Christian habits are the new skullcaps in India
Political uproar
The incident, however, has sparked off a massive political uproar in poll-bound Kerala.
Aside from Vijayan’s letter to the home minister, Shah also addressed a campaign rally on 24 March in Kerala’s Kanjirappally, which has a sizeable Christian population, and said that the culprits will be brought to justice.
However, Union Minister Piyush Goyal denied that any such attack took place, sparking widespread outrage.
“There was no attack on any nun whatsoever… the CM of the state is completely lying and making false statements when he says that,” said Goyal at a press conference in Kochi Monday.
On Tuesday, Vijayan hit back at Goyal for his comments: “They (nuns) had been attacked in a country, where one has all the rights to travel freely, for the sole reason that they were nuns. The action is shameful. He has justified the action of ABVP activists against the nuns and two others.”
(Edited by Rachel John)
Also read: Don’t listen to VHP and panic. Christianity is a failed project in India
Does the media too have a major role in this phenomenon of politics in religion and religion in politics? An evaluation of media reports over these past few years indicates a tendency to fan the fire for reasons other than reporting.
Disclaimer: I reserve the right to be wrong:
The phenomenon of ‘politics in religion and religion in politics’ which you correctly note is now entrenched in India.
The primary player is the BJP, it is their main, indeed only plank. The secondary player is the current media which has been purchased by Ambanis and serves the BJP. They have Arnob Goswami for example telling us Muslims are waging ‘corona jihad’, which made Hindus attack Muslim vegetable sellers. The media has a prominent role now only because the bulk is now owned by cronies of the BJP.
The BJP arose on the plank of razing the Babar masjid. That was brazen religion in politics led by Advani. In Vajpayee’s time, the same ‘politics in religion and religion in politics’ continued. In 2002, in Gujarat, the VHP and RSS demanded the Ram Temple should be built by 15 March 2002, and they started shipping kar sevaks to pressurise the govt.. The train was burnt and a pogrom was organised, and Modi got elected. This was during ‘moderate’ Vajpayee’s period. John Staines and his son were burnt by the Bajrang Dal during his tenure.
Incidents like the one of the Jhansi train multiply when the BJP rules. Vajpayee’s was a coalition government. Now they have an unchecked majority, so no hold barred attacks on minorities are permissible. That is why India’a ranking in democracy has gone down. This incident is reported in the foreign press as an example of ‘Hindu nationalism’.
The economy has crumbled, the govt. is clueless, it has given up. They cannot compete with China. The BJP’s only ambition now is to stay in power. As they cannot demonstrate any success on the economy, the only option is to unleash more vigilantes on the hapless minorities, and hope that keeps the Hindus happy.
The final conclusion of your observation of ‘politics in religion and religion in politics’ is that India is unsustainable and ungovernable. The BJP is driving India in the direction of balkanisation – that is, Yugoslavia.