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Journalism of Courage
Pastor Ankur Narula is the founder of the Pastor Ankur Narula Ministries, also known as The Church of Signs and Wonders, which is the biggest and fastest growing church in Punjab.. Many upcoming pastors have declared Narula as their spiritual father and are following in his footsteps. On Tuesday, the Income Tax (I-T) department conducted raids on the premises of this church.
Ankur Narula, who was born in a Hindu Khatri family, changed his name to Ankur Yoseph Narula after converting to Christianity. He is a recovered drug addict. According to the website of the church (ankurnarul.org), Apostle Ankur Narula came to know about Lord Jesus Christ when he was contemplating suicide amidst intoxication and sickness. He surrendered himself to God for the gospel and started his ministry with only three people in the church in the year 2008. By 2009, the church had grown to 500 members, and by 2013, it had reached 13,000 members. In 2014, the church had 18,000 members, and today, it has over 300,000 members, with hundreds of people taking baptism in the church every month. Pastor Narula claims he has a cure for almost every disease.
According to his website, “through miracle services, conferences, TV broadcasts, the internet, printed page (Masihi Sansar), and audio-video recordings,” Narula’s message now inspires “thousands of people around the globe.” Before starting the church, Narula was in the floor tiles and marble business, but his godown was burnt down by a mob that indulged in rioting in 2009. Jalandhar faced riots in 2009 following the killing of Sant Ramanand of Dera Sach Khand Ballan, the biggest dera of the Ravidassia community, in Vienna.
During these riots, the business establishments of several people were either ransacked or burnt down, and a curfew was imposed in Jalandhar for around two weeks. Although the church of Narula claims that it is run solely through volunteer donations of believers and works on a charity basis, it has previously come under scrutiny for its funds. On November 8, 2020, the Legal Rights Observatory, an RSS-affiliated group, claimed in a Twitter thread that it had lodged a complaint with the Union home ministry against Narula for alleged violations of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA). The group alleged that Narula had created a shell company in the UK for 10 days and then dissolved it with a view to set up a “money laundering network.”
Narula’s church was also in the news when he opened a branch in Delhi in November 2020, which was allegedly ransacked by members of a right-wing Hindu organization. The church also violated social distancing guidelines during religious congregations amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. The church has around a dozen branches in Punjab and abroad, including in the US, Canada, London, Birmingham, and Germany. In February of this year, Narula was visiting the devotees of his church in New Zealand.
People from all walks of life, including politicians, visit these branches. The majority of the visitors are Dalits, but there are also educated people like doctors, engineers, police officers, bureaucrats, businessmen, advocates, etc. who attend his churches.
The Church has a YouTube channel that has lakhs of followers, as the church claims to treat every disease under the sun.
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