Parivar Mission

RSS and Bajrang Dal activists on Saturday went on a rampage at Kota railway station to prevent nearly 275 tribals from attending a ceremony ...

RSS and Bajrang Dal activists on Saturday went on a rampage at Kota railway station to prevent nearly 275 tribals from attending a ceremony organised by a city-based Christian mission.

Succumbing to pressure from the activists, the district administration has detained the tribals at a police station. The Emmanuel Mission, which is organising the ceremony, has been booked under several Sections of the IPC for 8216;8216;forcing tribals to convert to Christianity8217;8217;.

Trouble began in the early hours of Saturday when activists of the saffron brigade surrounded passengers who had alighted from the Bangalore-Kota Express and stopped them from boarding buses of the mission, sources said. The activists also allegedly beat up mission employees and pelted stones at the buses. Later, the tribals were taken to the railway police station, where they are still being detained.

According to the FIR registered by police, the tribals had been brought to Kota by the mission with the promise of a bicycle and Rs 250 for converting to Christianity. The district administration has now asked the mission to send the tribals back to Andhra Pradesh from where they had come.

However, chairperson of the mission, Bishop Samuel Thomas, denied charges of forceful conversion. 8216;8216;All of them are our students. They have come here to collect their diplomas after completing our education programme,8217;8217; he said, adding the mission has been organising the ceremony every year in February. 8216;8216;Students from our 98 centres in India gather here for five days for this ceremony,8217;8217; he added.

Thomas said most of the tribals were Christians. Even the Hindus among them had willingly converted, he said, adding neither force nor money was behind their conversion. 8216;8216;Do you think they would convert for Rs 250 and a bicycle?8217;8217; he asked.

Thomas alleged that the students had been beaten black and blue by hoodlums backed by the RSS. 8216;8216;Instead of taking action against the assailants, the police have detained the victims. What sort of justice is this?8217;8217; he said.

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Deputy Mayor Ravindra Singh Nirbhay, who led the agitation, said none of the tribals was a student. 8216;8216;They are poor illiterate people who have been lured by the mission.8217;8217; Though the state has no law against conversion, Nirbhay said it was the Sangh Parivar8217;s social responsibility to save Hinduism from 8216;8216;such people8217;8217;. This is not the first time the mission has run into problems with the saffron brigade. A few years ago, the RSS had launched an agitation to block funds received by the mission. Around the same time, its activists had 8216;8216;rescued8217;8217; Manipuri children from the mission.