Hindutva group forces Christian worship to stop, alleging conversion in Delhi
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The violent intrusion into a routine Christian prayer ceremony held at the Hyatt Centric hotel in West Delhi on Sunday, driven by unfounded allegations of unlawful religious conversion of Hindus, is another distressing incident of Hindu right-wing fringe elements forcing the minority community to stop worshipping, as critics blame a lack of appropriate legal action for the repeated attacks on the right to worship.
The allegations, however, were rejected by the Delhi Police, which said its enquiry found no evidence of religious conversion.
The gathering, convened on 20 September by the Global Royal Priesthood Church under the banner of an ‘Atonement Sunday Service’, had drawn families and children for their customary assembly for worship, which came to an abrupt halt after an aggressive group barged into the banquet premises.
The intruders initiated a barrage of inflammatory accusations, brandishing mobile phone cameras before frightened congregants, including minors, while alleging that Hindu children were being subjected to illegal mass conversion.
Videos circulated on social media showed members of the Hindutva group entering the gathering and accusing the Christian organisers of converting Hindus to Christianity.
In the video, a person from the group filming the incident can be heard claiming that the children present there were Hindus and that the organisers were converting them to Christianity, while alleging that they were attacked by the organisers for objecting to the alleged conversion.
In another video, a man displayed forms which he claimed were being used to facilitate the conversion of around 500 Hindus, while alleging that people were being offered money as an inducement.
The claims were contradicted by the West Delhi Deputy Commissioner, Vichitra Veer, who said the gathering was a regular Sunday prayer service and that no matter relating to religious conversion had been found during an enquiry, while rejecting the claim that 500 people had been converted and urging people not to believe rumours.
The forms shown in the videos were identified as prayer-request and application forms belonging to the Global Royal Priesthood Church. The prayer-request form sought details from devotees and asked them to specify their prayer requests, while another form invited attendees to indicate positions in which they were interested in serving within the organisation.