A “Big Healing Crusade” event organised by The Church of Glory and Wisdom is being held in Odisha on 5th and 6th November. The event will be presided over by one ‘Prophet’ Bajinder Singh.

As soon as the event was tweeted by the Twitter handle @noconversion, it caught the eyes of many. Certain obvious questions that arose out of banner was why was DD Punjabi promoting an event that obviously furthered the conversion activity by a dubious individual called ‘Prophet’ Bajinder Singh and a shady “Church of Glory and Wisdom”.

To understand why there is an outcry about Doordarshan Punjab promoting “Pastor” Bajinder Singh, one needs to understand what “Church of Glory and Wisdom” and Singh is all about and the kind of events they organise, promote and preside over.

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According to reports, “Pastor” Bajinder Singh was a Haryanavi Jat who had converted to Christianity. After his conversion, he styled himself as a “miracle healer” and started preaching in Punjab. The “Church of Wisdom and Glory” is actually a “church” that was set up by Bajinder Singh himself. It is a pentecostal church that was set up by him in Tejpur village in around 2016.

The Diocese of Jalandhar had in 2018 disassociated the Church from Bajinder. The Jalandhar Diocese PRO, Father Peter, had said that the pastor was in no way aligned to the Diocese. “He ran an independent church, which is not even recognised. His style of preaching does not conform to the mainline churches,” he added.

In 2018, the self-appointed Pastor was accused of rape. In July 2018, Bajinder Singh was arrested from the Delhi airport following a complaint filed by a woman. He was held from the Delhi airport as he was about to board a flight to London to attend yet another “healing event”. Bajinder was reportedly on the run for a couple of months before the police nabbed him.

Read: Punjab: Ailing Sikh man made to read Kalma then thrashed by Muslim neighbour for resisting forced conversion to Islam

The charges against him were grave. The woman had accused him of raping her and recording the act on tape. She alleged that she was then blackmailed with it with Bajinder telling her that if she complained against him, he would release the videotape of her getting raped. The “Pastor” is currently out on bail in the case.

“Prophet” Bajinder claims to heal all ailments. From cancer to HIV to making the blind see, the deaf hear, in some cases, even the dead, alive.

In a shameless stunt, 2017 shows how “Prophet” Bajinder Singh brought a dead child back to life. With a massive cross hanging from the boy’s neck, “Prophet” miraculously brings the child “back to life”.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP6zTURqMsg]

In another, he brings a patient who has “been in a coma” back to life.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwJ-6oqmnGo]

There are several other such videos which are equally disturbing, with an aim to dupe people. Such videos are often used for conversion of people belonging to other faiths to Christianity, or even induct people into a cult that purports to follow Christianity.

The dangers of such “healers” are several. The most pertinent problem is how innocent, ailing people are duped with claims that the dead can be brought back to life or serious ailments like cancer, that need urgent medical attention can be healed miraculously.

The other problem with such events is that it is used for rampant conversion of the innocent by duping them with false promises, hopes and solutions to their problems.

Why is Doordarshan promoting ‘Prophet’ Bajinder Singh?

In the event poster promoted by this alleged “Church”, it says categorically that the programs of this “Prophet” are telecast every Friday from 10 to 10:30 PM. It is not just in this poster, but several other posters have this advertisement too.

The quesion is why would Doordarshan Punjab promote events that clearly are designed to dupe the vulnerable?

Stunning. As per this advertisement, the entire conversion drama is also telecast by the Public Broadcaster DD-Punjabi, every Friday 10 to 10:30 pm. If that is true, I guess a lot of questions need to be answered. @prasarbharati @shashidigital @mediasurya @PrakashJavdekar https://t.co/SGn4j1cHYz — Yashwant Deshmukh ?? (@YRDeshmukh) October 31, 2019

Doordarshan is a public broadcaster and for it to telecast this conversion tactic every Friday is questionable to say the least. Being a public broadcaster, no less, the burden of responsibility is far more on Doordarshan and the telecast of a conversion program clearly doesn’t bode well.

OpIndia has reached out to Doordarshan officials for their comment on the matter and will update this report with their response.