Due to some unknown reasons, I am being sent concrete evidence regularly about the activities of Evangelists by people who seem to believe that I may be able share their pain with a larger audience. Evangelists are having a free run there, supported ably by the government where it is alleged that most of key officers are either Christians or crypto-Christians. I did receive a short list of such officers.
I am all for politician belonging to any religion, including Christianity, become a leader. In fact, I am happy to see rise of such leaders. Hindus are a broad-minded people who respect all religions inherently. For them, the qualities of the leader are important, not his/her religion. We have seen evidence of this openness time and again at every level in India, from panchayats to the President’s office. But, Mr. Jagan Reddy has simply given up the dharma of being a leader of all the people of the state and has seemingly taken upon himself the task of “purifying the sinful souls.” His actions show that he is a Christian first and then a Chief Minister.
Before I talk specifically about Andhra Pradesh, let me recount a little bit of background so the readers can understand the pattern behind noise created by the organised Church against India internationally.
Evangelism began before independence in India and is taking place ceaselessly. North East parts of India were the first target where Baptist Church entered 160 years back but the speed of conversions picked up only post-independence. The famous ‘inner line permit’ was a clever ploy to keep other Indian away from the local tribes, giving the Church a free hand. Now, Christianity is overwhelming majority religion of most of the North East region, except Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. Here too, the Church is strong enough to force Arunachal Pradesh to nullify anti-conversion law. It is a documented fact that all the separatist movement in this region have been nurtured by the Churches of different denomination.
Next on the radar of Church was tribal belt of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Infact, the source of anti-Conversion bill is the report of Niyogi Commission in Madhya Pradesh by first Congress CM of erstwhile Madhya Pradesh Ravi Shankar Shukla that was set up to tackle nefarious designs of evangelists. Despite hard work, the Church has not been able to convert enough tribals to form an influential block like in North East. But, they have struck deep roots there. It is noteworthy that the Naxals have never attacked any missionary in this entire terror affected belt. They are the urbane fronts of Naxals that reach out to international community and the elite in India.
The new biggest battleground for harvesting the souls is Andhra Pradesh. Next is Tamil Nadu. In Kerala the Jihadi-Church-Communist axis is already visible to that extent that it has made police bold to treat Hindus shabbily as seen during Sabarimala agitation. It is alleged by the local people with ears in the power corridors, that the target for Andhra Pradesh is 10 million conversions before this government’s term ends.
With the kind of shenanigans going on in Tirupati, Smt. Sudha Murthy resigned from Tirupati Devasthanam Trust (TDTT), paving the way for Jagan’s maternal uncle to head the trust. His maternal uncle got into a controversy about his faith, but he insisted that he was a Hindu though his sister (Jagan’s mother) was a Christian. This issue was not clearly settled but his sympathy for evangelism are undoubted if we see his role in inducting non-Hindus into Tirupati trust related activities in various jobs, a contravention of the by-laws of the TDTT that allow only Hindus for these jobs. Recall that during Jagan’s father’s rule, attempt to open the sacred Seven Hills to evangelism in the name of tourism was fought tooth and nail by the Hindu community. He had to finally climb down.
Having realized that Tirupati is the soul of Southern part of India, Jagan has decided to break the Hindu resistance by chipping at the sanctity of Tirupati in a concerted manner, even while evangelists have been let loose in entire AP. Some months back, I had raised the issue of APSRTC bus tickets to Tirupati carrying promotional message of Jerusalem pilgrimage, contrary to the laws of Tirumala hills. (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/jerusalem-ad-on-bus-tickets-for-tirumala-devotees-sparks-row/articleshow/70811735.cms) It blew into a major controversy and government had to recall those tickets. But, instead of owning up this chicanery, a low ranking roadways warehouse manager was punished though he had no role in the tender that resulted in printing of these tickets. (https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1164890698451017729?s=20)
It seems that the population of crypto-Christians (Christians who don’t declare themselves as Christians but keep their old names) is highest in AP. Right from YSR to his son, there are lakhs of people who keep their Hindu names for the fear of losing benefits for SC/ST. Thus, legally, you can’t prove that the employees being inducted in Tirupati are non-Hindus. These crypto-Christians are also fighting elections as MLAs and MPs from SC/ST quota though they are practising Christians. Thus, they are eating into the benefits for real SC/ST population. They belong to creamy layer and exploiting the laws to deny benefits to real suffering masses.
Fortunately, there are some smart people who have shot videos of Tirupati trust employees attending Church services. I shared three such videos on Twitter. Infact, an NGO, Legal Rights Observatory (LRO), has scores of videos identifying the employees of Tirupati attending Church services. LRO has gone ahead a filed a PIL against Tirupati Temple trust with these records, it is against the service rules of Tirupati. This tweet gives list of Christians employed in Tirupati caught on camera. (https://twitter.com/saibollineni/status/1196040585309806597?s=09).
If you search Twitter and my TL, you will find three such videos that went viral.
This attempt at Christianisation of Andhra Pradesh doesn’t stop here. Jagan’s contempt for Hindu dharma is obvious. Every visitor to Tirupati is supposed to sign an undertaking that he believes in Balaji. Even ex-President Abdul Kalam ji signed this undertaking. But, Jagan refused to do it. When questioned, his minister for Dewaswom board abused the questioner this insolence. He is heard telling the protestor, “This temple was not built by the husband of your mother.” (https://twitter.com/RatanSharda55/status/1196026820644130817?s=08)
In another recent instance there is a video of police abusing devotees in Tirupati. (https://twitter.com/roopnayandarak/status/1196476286119530499?s=09)
Such is the carelessness of this government that big scale pilferage of precious sacred jewellery of Bhagwan Tirupati was brushed under the carpet. Again a junior employee is made a scapegoat after lot of noise. The trust never went to police to find the real culprit and avoid future mishaps.
(https://twitter.com/RatanSharda55/status/1166604299549466624?s=03)
I had raised the issue of Christian books displayed on official Tirupati website. The link was later deleted. (https://twitter.com/RatanSharda55/status/1175996986891239424?s=08) Jagan doesn’t stop here; he wants to usurp the assets of Hindu temples. He declared a policy of selling off temple land to distribute it to the poor! Fortunately, he was stopped in his tracks by the AP High Court. It never occurred to him that the Church is the biggest landlord after Government of India. (https://twitter.com/RatanSharda55/status/1168033908660654081?s=03)
Andhra Pradesh is prime example of why Hindu temples should not be under government control and be handed over to Hindus.
Promotion of minorities at the cost of majority community has become the latest political fad. The CM has declared monthly salary for the Christian clerics, like another secular CM, Mamata Banerjee, did for Muslim Muezzins and Maulvis. Even as I write this piece, I have received a circular that financial assistance to Christians visiting Jerusalam and Haj has been enhanced again. (https://twitter.com/RatanSharda55/status/1190625134387712000?s=08) LRO has written to government against this discrimination . (https://twitter.com/LegalLro/status/1196751008518393856)
While giving these incentives to Christians, Mr. Jagan Reddy has sadistically raised ticket charges for Tirupati and also that of prasadam laddoos. It is an irony that the richest God in the world, Tirupati, is charging for his prasadam while other privileged minorities are getting subsidies.
Such is the sense of arrogance and hate against Hindus and Hindu dharma that conversions are happening openly. I tweeted a video of an evangelist converting a ‘fallen soul’ in a swimming pool of a hotel within Tirupati! When asked, the evangelist was bold enough to say, “Do whatever you wish.”
(https://twitter.com/RatanSharda55/status/1195616945229328384)
The race to evangelise and convert Andhra into a Christian state is going at full throttle. I am told by reliable sources that there are good rates for conversion per person. Not only that, the convert is assured of education, job and other freebies like repainting of the house that includes a bold cross on its façade. Here is a video of a Christian leader offering youth INR 100,000 for marrying and converting a high caste Hindu girl. (https://twitter.com/RatanSharda55/status/1165600316714176512?s=03)
There is an evangelical website from Delhi which regularly gives the targets achieved every week for conversions. There are wholesale rates also that an academic known to me got when he made a decoy call. Thus, funds are not an issue. With a brother-in-law as a champion evangelist, the CM has his job cut out.
In these circumstances, is it a surprise that Hindus are feeling that they are under siege? Does secularism mean victimisation of Hindus and robbing them off their heritage, their traditions and their religion? Does it mean breaking traditions and rules of Bhagwan Tirupati, the most revered of the form of Bhagwan Vishnu?
Unless Hindu organisations come out and raise their voice, they have a bleak future in Andhra. I do not understand why opposition political parties like BJP are playing soft ball with a party that has set a goal of converting Andhra into the next big Christian state, that too at the cost of Hindu pride.
Swami Dayananda Saraswati had noted, “Conversion is a violence against the soul; because, it tries to separate you from your heritage, tradition and families. It tries to uproot you from your social milieu of thousands of years.” We have seen the result of such conversions in North East. We have also seen how Christians are creating havoc with ancient Hindu tradition and culture using the smoke screen of Dravidianism in Tamil Nadu and trying to break national unity.
Happenings in Andhra are a civilisational threat to the very core of Hindu dharma. Hindus need to recognise this serious challenge to their very being. They need to tell people like Jagan very clearly, “Enough is enough.”