Woman reading Bible. Photo: Siraj Qureshi Woman reading Bible. Photo: Siraj Qureshi

The fire of religious strife ignited by the so-called 'ghar-waapsi' of some Muslim families in Agra is yet to cool down with the opposition making it a matter of prestige to pull the Prime Minister into answering their questions, when the city of Taj Mahal has again come into highlights due to an entire village being subjected to forced conversion by Christian missionaries.

Talking to India Today, residents of Garhi Sampat village of Etmadpur Tehsil in Agra said that this village has a population of about 15000 residents, most of them Hindus engaged in farming and as laborers. A lot of the families have also lost their land in the acquisition for Yamuna Expressway. They said that in the past couple of years, Christian missionaries have actively increased their activities in this village and have been luring innocent women into converting their faith to Christianity, while their husbands stay Hindus.

Citing her own case, 40 year old Ramwati, wife of Bani Singh Baghel said that about 18 months back, she was very sick and had lost hopes of recovery, when she was visited by a priest who took her to the Church and performed some ceremonies. A few days later, when she started feeling a bit better, the priest told her to begin visiting frequently and bring more women of her ilk to the church. There, they were asked to pray before the cross and read paragraphs from bible. Each of them was given a bible to read at home and told that if they converted to Christianity, their children will get subsidized education in missionary schools of Agra, Tundla and Firozabad, their husbands will get jobs worth one lakh a year, a house or money to construct one on their own. When they talked to their husbands, they declined to convert, but allowed them to read the bible. Now they were being forced to convert or return the money they had received to construct their house etc.

Virendra Singh, husband of another 'bible-reader' woman Bhoori Devi told India Today that when the Ved Nagar incident came to light, he began to suspect that his wife had been converted to Christianity through deception and complained to some Hindu outfits who immediately reached his house and took him and his wife to the Etmadpur police station to lodge a complaint against the missionaries who performed this conversion. However, while the police had not spared an instant in filing an FIR against Nand Kishore in the Ved Nagar conversion issue, it refused to file an FIR in this case claiming that a case will be registered only after due investigation.

According to sources, these conversions have a single brain behind them - that of a local villager who is employed in a Tundla church for the past several years. This man, who has been identified as Hari Shankar, was behind the conversions and was often seen preaching Christianity in the village.

Social activist Vishal Sharma told India Today that the inaction of the police in this issue shows the duplicity of the so called 'secular' approach of the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh. When the affected party was Muslim, the action of the police was lightning fast, but now, when the affected party was Hindu, the police did not even accept the complaint. He said that the Prime Minister's mission of 'Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas' is being intentionally derailed by the opposition parties in the name of religious conversions, which have been happening in this country since ages, because the opposition actually lacked moral strength and numbers to put up some constructive criticism against a full majority government.

95 years old senior citizen Imamuddin told India Today that the conversion in Gujarat was being highlighted where Christians returned to Hindu fold, but nobody cares to even comment on so many Hindus being coerced into Christianity, which is a highly appalling state of affairs and needs to be addressed soon to maintain communal harmony in the country.