Police in India’s central state of Madhya Pradesh arrested 30 seminary students and two priests as they were singing Christmas carols in a village, UG Christian News has learnt.
The Christians were also roughed up by Hindu nationalists, who also burned down a car belonging to the priests while police allegedly looked on, according to the Christian Post.
The carol singers, who are from St. Ephrem’s Theological College in Satna district in the state of Madhya Pradesh, were arrested from Dara Kalan village Thursday night “as they were conducting a routine Christmas carol singing programme which has been the practice during the Christmas season for the last 30 year.”
Eight Christian leaders within India who condemned the act and later went to inquire about the detained were also taken into custody, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) said in a statement, adding that the situation outside the police station in Satna “was allowed to be so hostile that even those who wanted to approach the detained persons could get no access to them.”
The “goons” also torched the vehicle of the priests, the statement said, according to the Christian Post.
A member of the Bajrang Dal, a Hindu nationalist group associated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party, accused the Christians for allegedly seeking to convert people through distributing the Bible, photos of Jesus Christ and singing carols, according to Huffington Post.
“We were only singing carols, but the hardline Hindus attacked us and said we were on a mission to make India a Christian nation – that’s not true,” Anish Emmanuel, a seminary member, was quoted as saying.
CBCI called the accusation of conversion “frivolous and laughable.”
“All right thinking Indians will hang their heads in shame at these terrorists who have taken on the garb of ‘religious police,'” the bishops said. “We are absolutely sure that they do not speak in the name of our very broad minded and peace loving Hindu brethren.”
The seminary students and priests were later released after a local politician intervened, according to the British Asian Christian Association, whose chairman said, “This alarming incident, so near to Christmas, is evidence of the deepening level of animosity for minorities in India under the Narendra Modi regime.”
Demanding Increased Protection
This event has prompted Christian leaders in India to request the government to increase security at churches during the Christmas weekend.
Arab News reported 24 December that Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, president of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, and other church leaders met India’s interior minister, Rajnath Singh, earlier this week to request for greater security for the Christian community.
Cleemis also said the Christian community is “losing confidence in the government,” according to The Indian Express.
Additional Reporting by Christian Post.
