Mumbai: BJP MLAs in Maharastra claimed that illegal churches are cropping stupendously in tribal districts in the state. They have located illegal churches in 199 gram panchayats in a Dhule district alone, they claimed, citing an RTI reply. They added that tribals are being converted to Christianity through these illegal churches.
The government under Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said that a strict law will be brought to curb illegal conversions, and illegal churches will be demolished in six months. State Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule told the assembly on Wednesday that it has decided to demolish unauthorised churches across the state, Hindustan Times reported.
The minister also said that a strict law would be brought into place to stop cases of religious conversion.
According to Hindustan Times, the minister made the announcement after BJP MLAs Anup Agrawal, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Sanjay Kute, and Gopichand Padalkar alleged that tribals were being converted to Christianity through illegal churches built using foreign funding for promoting Christianity. They demanded that a mechanism should be introduced to stop converted tribals from getting benefits under schemes meant for Scheduled Castes.
However, the MLAs have no clear data on the number of illegal churches built in the state nor the source of the alleged foreign funding.
Citing the RTI reply, MLA Agharwal claimed that the number of illegal churches in tribal districts such as Palghar and Nandurbar is increasing stupendously as even villages with a population of around 2,000 have half a dozen churches. He claimed that illegal conversions were done through threat and luring through medical help.
Meanwhile, Mungantiwar claimed that 1,515 organisations involved in religious conversion activities received foreign funding last year, and this has resulted in a reduction in the Hindu population. However, he couldn’t name a source of information.