Christians in India berated and falsely charged by police for handing out food to the poor
by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – A pastor and a team of youth missionaries from his church were abused and falsely charged in India earlier this month for providing food and clothing to the poor, in another instance of police complicity with the radical Hindu nationalist agenda.
Rev. Perumal Kanagaraj from Viluppuram Church in Tamil Nadu state and 30 young people from his congregation were handing out basic necessities in a slum on March 8th when a violent Hindu nationalist from the Munnani group began slandering them and threatened to burn them alive.
“The Hindu Munnani activist soon lost his cool and started beating the youth missionaries while he continued abusing them in extremely foul language,” Pastor Kanagaraj told Morning Star News. “Within no time the crowd started gathering, and he held us up there and was not letting us move.”
The Christians tried to call the police, but were soon informed that a police complaint had already been filed against them by the nationalist, who lied and said they were handing out food to the poor to coerce them to believe in Jesus.
At the police station, the inspector himself began abusing the Christians, suggesting their wives become prostitutes in order to incite them to anger.
“We remembered Jesus on the cross when the Hindu extremists and police were humiliating us using vulgar language, and we did not protest,” Pastor Kanagaraj said.
India is now 10th on Open Doors USA’s World Watch List which rates Christian persecution, following six years of a Hindu nationalist government under Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during which persecution of religious minorities has rapidly escalated.
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