Christian forum pleads for continuing converted STs’ rights

Kolkata: A forum of Christians on Saturday said it would submit memoranda to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging them to ensure Scheduled Tribe people who convert to other faiths continue to enjoy the rights they had before conversion.
“The fundamentalist groups have been demanding since 1960 that the benefits of ST converts should be revoked. Towards that end, the fundamentalists have been organizing false propaganda and hate campaigns. They also are reportedly organizing heinous attacks on the Christian community and churches. In our memoranda to the President and the Prime Minister we will appeal to them to ensure the designs of the fundamentalist forces are foiled,” Herod Mullick, state working secretary of the Bangiya Christiya Parisheba (BCP), told media persons here.
Mullick said BCP, which calls itself the united forum of all denominational Christians in West Bengal, would also hand over a memorandum to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with an appeal to take up the issue.
“The rights of Scheduled Caste people who have converted to other faiths have been revoked decades back. A petition seeking restoration of these rights is now pending before the Supreme Court. We will wait for the verdict and hope it will go in our favour. But now a similar campaign is on to rob converted Scheduled Tribe people also of their rights.
“The hydra-headed fundamentalist forces in the country are fooling tribal leaders and keeping them
in the forefront for articulating such demands. This is destroying the nation’s image before the world,” he said.
Denying that Christian missionaries resort to religious conversion through force or allurement, Mullick said, “On the contrary, the churches never support, rather oppose, conversion by force or enticement. They accept people to their fold when they change their faith voluntarily.”
Pointing out that there were hundreds of small church denominations and groups other than the known established denominations, he said “all churches cannot be held responsible if any unrecognised upstart church group is found to engage in any unethical activity”.
To identify such unscrupulous church groups, BCP will make a district-wise list of churches in West Bengal, and submit it to the state authorities and all district administrations. (UNI)