Open Letter to Valson Thampu: Dear Rev. Valson Thampu, The T.N. ordinance and Article 25, The Hindu dated 13 October by you where you made a statement ” What are the ground realities in respect of conversion and the moment matters of conscience like conversion are legislated upon from an obstructionist standpoint, this allergy acquires an air of objectivity and legitimacy. With this, the issue of conversion moves from the zone of resentment to that of righteous indignation.” Let me quote from an email received from a good, objective fair minded, christian pastor, an American, whose name cannot be revealed for privacy and to insulate the person for his unusually Candid views expressed that was sent to me by the VHP President Ashok chougule, Maharashtra, and given here within quotes. For information i am not even a member of any Hindu organisation and not even remotely connected. “If Hindus are now talking a language of intolerance, let us keep in mind that this has been routine talk for the Semitic religions (Christian, Muslim, Jewish) (for 2002 years.)I am with you on this, but really we Christians have been guilty of insensitive behavior and language for eons.”…(Continued towards the end of the article (…) Let me tie this to a recent happening, stunning in its audacity, and that I have been researching for the past five weeks, that happened over a month ago, but Rev.Valson Thampu others seek to bury any mention of these incidents at all, and he did not refer to this as even passing by reference. “The Arch Bishop of Delhi also and Vice president of Catholic Bishop’s conference of CBCI, Vincent concessao, today questioned the need for Tamilnadu Government to bring in the controversial ordinance on conversions three weeks ahead of the Assembly session.” (The Hindu, Saturday October 12). The Arch Bishop and others who spoke in New Delhi did cover up up the incidents. So far all other Christian propaganda specialists, who had come out with individual and collective press statements, did swathe the incidents, which I am going to expose. Rev. Thampu you said:”What ever The Sangh mouthpieces caricature and denounce conversions as a calculated strategy on the part of Muslims and Christians to wipe out Hinduism from the land of its birth. They allege, further, that large-scale mass conversions are taking place and that every conversion is effected by “force, fraud or inducement”. Here, you do not show awareness, does not regret,evince any sensitivity, and did not attempt to link the TN ordinance with the Mass conversions of 250 Hindus that took place near Madurai, reported 25 August in this daily (The Hindu, 25 August,2002).
The previous mass conversion of 1500 Hindu victims to Christianity took place in January 2001.Most of the changed people belong to the Cholavandan, Perayur,Thirumangalam and Melur regions. This was Inspired by the ‘Operation Go One Million’ call given by the president of the Seventh Day Adventists in India, D. R. Watts, a Canadian. The following high alert news reported in Tamil vernacular news magazines starting first week of June 2002. And continued through the whole month. The news has not found its way into English newspapers or magazines. In this age of high tech communication, this news has been suppressed, or are unconcerned to report on matters that concern Hindus. The news was reported in Tamil news magazines a) Kumudam reporter, b) junior vikatan, c) Nakeeran and d.) Nettrikkan. To counter the Nettrikkan (third eye) journalist, the Christian missionaries arranged to splash black notices, and wall posters, all over the Chennai city demanding the arrest of the reporter Mr.Manian. “Prayer Towers” founded by DGS Dinakaran, a former bank officer turned evangelist, who is co worked by his son Paul Dinakaran, both now jet set Television evangelists; have built an empire, that spans the entire subcontinent, sikkim, Srilanka and Northeast, have an extensive network of affiliates. ‘Prayer for the asking’, ‘Prayers by telephone’ are some of the unique sales proposition, which made the group popular. What was earlier localized propaganda, became with the arrival of private TV channels, the reach of this group became extensive, and a successful endeavor.. The Christian organisation HQ located in Green Ways Road, a posh locality of Chennai apparently amidst government bungalows, bribed the local officials in “nallur vayal”, near coimbatore, to change the existing name to a Christian one, and also has planned to convert 15000 Hindus to Christianity, in Anaikatti, Coimbatore, where the group is running an engineering college. In anaikatti, swami Dayanandha saraswathi is having his ashram. Also Chinmaya mission is having its campus. The four journals reported, that the missionary also prevented Chinmaya mission, legally blocked construction of a Siva temple, within its campus for years. The magazine also reported that the missionary also spread rumour about the Hindu ashrams, to defame them. “A plan to convert 15000 Hindus foiled” (Kumudam reporter 6 June, 2002), “Villages exploding against Dinakaran and Paul Dinakaran” was the cover story. “The evangelist attempted whole scale evacuation of people in the karunya nagar region (coimbatore)”. Enroute from siruvani to Coimbatore lies ” nallur vayal’. Now this village’s name has been changed to karunya nagar. Ever since the missionary and evangelists DGS Dinakaran started the karunya engineering college in the area, slowly the identity of this place is getting lost, and everything is becoming christianized (karunyaised).. karunya post office.karunya police station. Karunya telephone exchange.It did not stop with this the rumour was thick in the air that conversions are going on. When the missionaries wanted to plant a huge cross on Dakshina kailas.. Even the docile Hindu heads got agitate..
With the result was the formation of the ” Dakshina Kailas Padugappu Mahandu’, on May 30, 2002, a huge conference was organised, headed by Kanchi kamakoti peetam sankaracharya, Swami Jayandra saraswathi. More than twenty heads and pontiffs of Hindu religious institutions, the RSS and Hindu Munnani, and general public had participated in the meeting condemning the atrocities. The charges leveled against the evangelists: . DGS Dinakaran and his son Paul Dinakaran attempted whole scale evacuation of the local people for many years. Since the people went to district collector and represented, they could not be disturbed. . Paul Dinakaran wanted to have much influence in the local affairs. He tried to increase the Christian population. He tried to increase the Christian population by adding to the voters list students numbering 1200, which belonged to different religious groups, falsify registers as Christians. Most of students are outsiders. The voter list was found beefed up with 1200 spurious Christian names. ” When census was taken Paul Dinakaran and his team falsified the numbers by removing from the voters list, the names of adivasis who were traditionally residing in the area as numbering only 49, while the actual figure was about 1500. . Further by giving food packets and low jobs Paul Dinakaran converted some 200 families. For more than 10 years there was tension in the areas. The District administration paid no heed hence the agitation explained one local person. . The Hindus consider Vellinagiri, in the Western Ghats sacred, for Siva Rudraksah grow here in abundance. Every year thousands of Siva devotees go on pilgrimage to Dakshina Kailas. The missionaries have purchased thousands of acres of land and are now changing the name of the sacred place itself. To stop all these we are conducting a meeting and rally. .. Who gave the missionaries the rights? Paul Dinakaran wanted to plant a huge cross on top of the hill , over looking the highway to Kerala.Paul Dinakaran foisted false cases against the organizers, including Mr. .Rengaraj who is leading the agitation , and a lawyer by profession. # The Elected councilor of the place T.S Krishnaswamy told, ” There is no name in the panchayat regards as karunya nagar, but in ration cards Karunaya nagar has been mentioned”. Government Gazette only refer to the village as ‘ nallur vayal’, even the high court judgment mentions that there is only nallur vayal only should be mentioned against the place , but when people approach government officers with ration card with “karunya nagar’ they become confused. For there is no such name officially’ #8. He had also foisted false cases against his own non Christian students, who resisted his move to christianize, and had them implicated falsely in a murder case, where the body of student, was found in a abandoned well, They were also prevented from attending the exams. About 20 such students, have to have a budding career that has eluded them have landed in cells and lock ups, facing trials and attending court hearings- and all of them are Hindus. (An affected student and his father gave this information not reported in Tamil news magazines. Soon I hope to get to the bottom of this story.) ” With these accusation we approached Paul Dinakaran” the reply given was that Dinakaran was not available. We tried to contact DGS Dinakaran, in his prayer Towers office in greenways road.
The PRO Ernest tried to reason us out, not to magnify the problem. It is better to ignore it. It is the handy work of one Rengaraj who wanted 10 lakhs. Since we did not pay. He is doing all this. Rengaraj is practicing lawyer, registered with the bar association, to accuse of this extortion is the best form of defense for the PRO. All that he could further state was that, we are engaged in service activities in and around 56 villages. In the meeting and rally more than 20 adheenams (heads of Tamil mutts) participated, an unusual and unprecedented incident in the History of Tamilnadu, dominated by Dravidian Parties and anti Hindu, and anti Hindi movements for over 75 years. To my best knowledge all the mutt leaders have never assembled on a single platform- not even for the Ayodhya issue was there such show of solidarity. Sri Jayandra saraswathi replied to a question, ” Religious conversions have to be stopped all over India. We have to safe guard our culture and leave it intact for the future generations That is what the organizers of the meeting are doing.” Hindu Munnani leader Rama gopalan said, ” Perur adheenam, wanted to construct a Murugan Temple. ..It was banned by the karunya Trust. It had to be constructed over night. Chinmaya Mission has its Ashram nearby and wanted to construct a Shiva Temple, in its place. It was stopped for 15 years by karunya trust, and forced to face needless/endless court battles. it was forced by the karunya trust The missionaries are bribing government officials and wanted to usurp by fencing off the entire tract of land comprising the Mountain also and wanted to plant a Giant cross on the top, so that it could be seen from the Kerala side. There is every danger of a communal flare up in the region..if the mischief is not nipped in the bud itself .” Courtesy Kumudam Reporter Tamil vernacular magazine 6.6.2002) Junior Vikatan dated 5/6/2002 reported in detail. Translated into English here. ” 30 Kms from coimbatore lies velliangiri Mountains now it has become like volcano. Hindus worship this place as Dakshina Kailas. At the foot of the hill is the karunya trust. !5 years back a college of engineering was started. Now the missionaries have purchased more than 1200 acres of land. Now when DGS Dinakaran plans to erect a hug cross on Top of Hill.now strong protests have emerged to stop the move. Advocate Rengaraj told we were happy 15vyears ago when an engineering college came to our village. All that hopes re dashed after 15 years. Those college students were included in the voters list. We went to prove the illegal voters list, and proved that the names of students who are from outside were included. Then the 1200 names were removed from the voters list. They wanted converts from the adivasis who live in this place. They have converted the prayer hall into a conversion factory. The adivasis resisted the move. police listen to the missionaries. Sivankudi siddha, a sage in siddha tradition living here spoke to us ” people can have religious sentiments.. But not madness. These missionaries are fanatics.. Who want to swallow the entire Coimbatore district? They want to construct a cross on then Kailas. We faced already enough problems (he meant the 1998 bomb blast). The Kailas is held sacred by Hindus fro several hundreds of years. So went to nip off the mischief in the bud itself.” Kanch sankaracharya said , we understand that Dinakaran is engaged converting Hindus to Christianity. We have to safe guard our religion and this the logic behind this conference. Otherwise we are not against Dinakaran personally”
The RSS also joined hands. Venkatesh says they come and study the family problems (missionaries conduct door to door surveys to understand the problems and vulnerability of the individuals, families, street, locality and target individual victims, and after poaching him/her, also lures the family into the trap. It is new phenomena, off late, a large number of churches have started alcoholics anonymous groups, as they see rampant alcoholism among folks presents an opportunity to have fresh cache of converts). They have brokers for conversions, who are paid hefty commissions.The Dinakarans (father and son) are behind all these, and in future if there is any religious riots, they have to bear full responsibility. ‘Nakeeran ‘ dated 25/6/2002 (, the Tamil news magazine that became famous all over the country after Kannnada actor Rajkumar’s kidnap episode) reported that Paul Dinakaran tried to bribe off by throwing 10 lakhs to agitators (Rengaraj) which was thrown on his face by the agitators. It also reported that Paul Dinakaran spoke to Ajit Chaitanya of Chinmaya mission at about 2.45 Am in the night asking him to withdraw the consecration ceremony to be conducted the next morning. In a massive rally organised some two weeks ago by agitated Hindus, several Hindu leaders participated, headed by Jayandra saraswathi. A collective resolution was passed and sent to district administration and to central government. Mean while Christian organisations have started a propaganda war, planted a story that spread a rumour that Hindus are planning to demolish their Bethesda prayer hall, which was stoutly denied by the whistle blower and spearheading the movement to save ” nallur vayal” the lawyer turned activist Shri. Rengaraj. By such activities the Christian missionaries invited upon themselves this ordinance. Mr. Valson Thampu you asked for evidence? How many more do you want? All that you have to do is to walk into any church and ask for the Baptismal records from the parish priest, which as a preacher can be accessed by you. Why ask general readers in a newspaper column, for evidence? It is unprofessional. You stated:” According to Census 2001, Christians comprise only 2.18 percent of the population of India. This puts in perspective the merit of the allegation that large-scale conversions by Christians endanger the very survival of Hinduism in India…” “All communities in the world are seeking to force the respective states to bring out legislation to make conversions difficult if not altogether ban them. In Islam, a person who has become a Muslim can never leave the fold. In Russia, due to pressure from the Orthodox Christian Church, foreign priests belonging to other Christian sects have been asked to leave the country. In Israel, a move to have legislation to ban conversions has been not followed up only when the Christian churches in the country gave a Written undertaking that they will not convert.” Would your holiness will you agree for an Israel like agreement with respective authorities in India? Your Mercy, what is the percentage of Christian population vis a vis others, in the North eastern states of Nagaland, Arunachal pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura Assam, and the southern state of Kerala about which you are silent? Are you silently enjoying your successes that Christianity has become majority in these states? Others have become minority. According to CBCI 1994: In the tribal districts and Northeastern States catholic Bishops conference says have majority Christians. “The Tribal Church of the North East: ” As a whole people of the Northeast have welcomed Christianity in a big way. Today in three out of the seven states, Christians constitute the majority: Mizoram (83%), Nagaland (80%), Meghalaya (52%). 70% of the Christians in the N.E are either Presbyterians or Baptists. Catholics account for one-fourth of the Christian population of the area and 5.6 % of India. The catholic population which was less than 60000 at the time of independence has sharply increase to climb up to 7.1 lakhs in 1990,thanks to the missionary zeal of salesians.” In Kerala already 19.5% of the population has been converted to Christianity. In Orissa the Christian population has gone up from 0.95 % in 1951 to 2.10% in 1991. In Goa, Diu, and Daman to 27.67% and in Tamilnadu, it has risen from 4.74% in 1951 to 5.69% in 1991. Don’t you want similar victories for the cross in other states also? Hindus are worried, not about historic survival, but continued survival into future. Missionary websites are full of conversion plans for India. “Million Hindus waiting for Christ”, ” India for Christ” , ” planting churches in village for every 200 people” and so on. Are you denying that these websites do not belong to Christian organisations? Do you deny that infamous declaration of “Dominus Jesus” September 2000, made by Pope John Paul II, who like his medieval popes and monarchs of Europe, officially seeks to establish the supremacy of Roman catholic version of Christianity all over the world? Don’t you know that the saner elements of the Catholic bodies of India, Australia, and other countries were up in arms against the papal declaration, which went against that famous second Vatican Council, 1965,from which you have quoted but not the latest “Dominus Jesus” year 2000 that has superceded the previous declaration and even contradicts. The Vatican has slided a great Deal. To the erring Indian members the Vatican issued warnings and condemned the Indian church for ‘unruly behavior and apostasy’ if not excommunication. India was described as “the epicentre of unorthodox views”. Do you deny this? Views of spiritualisng the Indian Christianity, is viewed by the Vatican as unorthodox and if not condemnation. Do you deny that signatured declaration of the pope John Paul II in his book ” Crossing the thresholds of hope” wherein he wrote “it is not Inappropriate to caution those Christians who enthusiastically welcome certain ideas originating in the religions of the Far East. One should know one’s own spiritual heritage well and consider whether it is right to set it aside lightly.” (Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Random House, 1994, pp 89-90. Emphasis in the original.). What is wrong in Hindus trying to protect themselves against medieval world dominance concepts emanating from the Vatican if necessary by legal means, like the ordinance by the TN government? Even the UN charter for countries prescribes the principle of self-defence… Do you agree that the Vatican will not allow, the Sankaracharya from Kanchi to preach to Christians in the St.Peter’s square in Rome? But Hindus have allowed you to preach in their holiest of holy cities in the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi. While the present Pope has come to India twice. You spoke about liberating dalit Hindus. Do you know that history of your own church? Churches were openly engaged in slave trade the world over till about 100 years?
More than 60 million slaves were imported and exported by Christian churches in a mere 500 years? Christian churches strongly supported colonism, apartheid and imperialism? All those blacks in America are descendents of those slaves. India never had physical slavery. Why don’t you go and help blacks and others? In 2000 alone more than 33 black churches were attacked and razed by white Christian supremacists in the USA. Are you aware of this? Why don’t you missionaries spread that black Christians are tortured and suppressed in the USA? Why only take the case of dalits of India? I wish to ask you whether you are allowed to preach in Mecca, Medina, Tehran, Baghad, Islamabad and Dacca? Why do you go and insist about propagating Christianity there? You know too well what will happen! You know too well what is status of religious minorities n Pakistan. All that you have to do is to visit that religious rights web site in Rome. You made a comparison by the Sikh Kirpan and Bible preaching. Indians are known for their poor knowledge of history, and you are not an exception, You are not aware of the ecclesiastical history. You appear to be unaware of the origins of the Bible and how it was compiled over 300-400 years. The message “to go and propagate” which you attribute to Jesus, from Mark was actually a Later day addition, and Christian scholars have found it out after extensive research that it was later day interpolation, like so may other passages in the Bible. Some over enthusiasitic Bishop added it for Propaganda purposes, at least 200 years after Jesus Christ. Please check up with encyclopedia Britannica, encyclopedia American macropedia under relevant sections. Please Also check up for Professor Morton smith of Columbia university and his finding in a Jerusalem Monastery in 1948, regarding the expunged portions from the Bible. You compared the Sikh Kirpan and the rights of Christian to go and propagate. The Kirpan was Historic, and can be directly traced to the great Sikh Gurus. While the passage you referred from the BIBLE cannot be attributed to Jesus Christ, but to some early Bishop, and cannot be quoted as authority, for having originated from the mouth of Jesus. The Kirpan was the result of invasions, where the Great gurus were forced to take up arms to defend the poor and the meek, from the bloodthirsty vandals. It was not a tool used for propaganda and definitely not for conversion of non-Sikhs to Sikhism. While the Bible has been a tool and has been always remained so for conversion, like the Koran, and has been used to fight crusades. Show me a single evangelist who has not used his Bible for not converting others in the last 2000 years! Please show me one Sikh who has ever used his Kirpan to threaten, or to convert others. It is bad comparison and bad logic. Though Christianity remains a minority religion in India it is backed by world powers and multi-billion dollar budget and remains as one of the largest religions of the world. Hinduism is mostly Confined to India,and unlike Christianity has no plan to Hinduise the whole world.
Christians in India though 2.18% as you say are retaining majority of education institutions in the country, and wield enormous clout, in politics and establishment, with the media and backed by WCC countries, USA, Canada, GB, Australia, Switzerland and other European countries. While Hinduism does not have a godfather to protect its interests. Even in the country of its birth, Hinduism has been marginalized and is not the state religion. Hinduism is practically an orphaned religion – orphaned in the country of its origin. So if Chief Minister Jayalalitha is trying to adopt that orphaned baby out of genuine concern and to protect its interests, it is unpalatable to muliti-national-multi-billion-dollar religions like Christianity? Why so? Pure motive of conversion till the last pagan is Christianized. To eliminate Hinduism, as Christianity did to Greece, Rome, Pre Christian pagan Europe, and to native African religions, Meso American cultures, native cultures of Intuits, Lapps, Maoris, and others. Reinhardt Bonnke, the missionary had the audacity to declare in Cochin some 3 years ago to the press “when I landed in Africa 20 years ago less than 2% of Africa was Christian, and now more than 40% of Africa has been conquered for Christ, and now India is on TOP OF GOD’S Agenda”. Evangelization is is actually homogenization that seeks to impose one god, one prophet and one book for all human kind. Christian imperialism is not a myth, it is happening very day, enacted in street corners, where churches are ‘planted’. Father Augustine kanchamala SJ SVD openly admitted “the objective of conversion is numerical strength-the top priority during the colonial mission -is not rejected here”. Expressing his firm commitment to convert the whole of Asia to Christianity, the pope said,” Indeed they (synod priests) expressed the conviction that the heart of the church in Asia will be restless until the whole of Asia finds its rest in the peace of Christ, the risen lord” (Ecclesia Asia, Chapter 2). Dear Rev. Valson Thampu do you want Hindus to remain sitting ducks to such trigger happy evangelical poachers? If you were Hindu would you not like the poacher to become poached? You stated “To the best of our knowledge, no bona fide case of conversion by unfair means has been proved or punished anywhere in this country so far.” After the Madurai mass conversion of 250 Hindus August 2002, and January 2001,after media cry and negative publicity, the self styled pastors of the Adventist Christian church, as damage Control exercise, have now approached Archbishop Marianus Arockiasamy of Madurai “to use the Sunday pulpit to tell the congregation what really happened.” On his part Archbishop? Arockiasamy has said, “it was unfortunate that an unorganised church had baptized people in the way it was reported, within days.” Principal of Theological Seminary, Dr. Dyanchand Carr said, “Using such means as the Adventists reportedly did to convert people should be condemned.” It is not only Hindus who fall prey to such poaching, but also the Roman Catholics to the dismay of Pope John Paul who made this historic remark during one of his visits to South America He Said that he had come to protect his flock against the ‘wolves of evangelical Protestantism’. (Houston Chronicle, October 13, 1992.) The bold initiative of DR.J.Jayalalitha and the TN ordinance not only seeks to protect Hindus just as the Pope John Paul’s role to protect catholics from evangelicals. The role of jayalalitha is not only to save Hindus, but also save moderate Christians, from fanatical Christians. These cults indulge in activities and methods that range from “mind control ” to “manipulative techniques”. One such missionary is in Madras, (Lee jay Rock) Televised in Tamil TV channels, strongly denounced the Darwin’s theory of evolution, taught in schools, and wanted to go back and teach the biblical story of creation. How scientific is this? Is this not against the “spirit of scientific enquiry” that the Indian constitution wanted to inculcate in young minds? These are the enemies of democracy from whom the TN ordinance wants to save the Indian people, not only Hindus, but also Tribals, Indigenous peoples, Jains, Sikhs, Jews, Orthodox Christians, Armenian Christians, Buddhists, neo Buddhists, milder Christians, Syrian Christians, and also Islamic sects like Ahmedias, Sufis ,Shias, Bohras,Bahais have to be saved . If you care to know more about Christian cults please visit: http://www.culteducation.com/edvolumes.html and visit www.rickross.com, to know about the real people who come to India on the garb of angels and their designs. Mr. Ashok chougule the president of VHP Maharashtra, and author of “Conversions Frequently asked questions” wrote to me after the Madurai incident: “Thus it becomes incumbent to question the clergy of the proselytizing religions whether they have a moral right to ask members of the other religion to join their fold. John Paul II should ask himself how he considers it fine to ask a Hindu to set aside his/her spiritual heritage. Such tensions are not a new phenomenon. “When two young Parsees, who attended the school of Rev Dr John Wilson, the most outstanding of the missionaries, converted to Christianity in 1839 under his influence, a storm of indignation arose among the Parsees. They tried to win back the two converts with threats of violence and immense money offers.
The Panchayat – in vain – filed a suit before the High Court and threatened the British government in a petition that ‘if Government would not help there would be a terrible uprising in the country, and the results would be disastrous.’ The number of pupils in Dr Wilson’s school (primarily Parsees) sank from 500 to 60-70. The Parsees’ embitterment was so great that Dadabhai Naoroji could not accept Sir Erskine Perry’s offer of going to England to study in 1845 because the community feared Naoroji’s conversion.” (The Parsees in India, Eckehard Kulke, Vikas Publishing, Delhi p 94.) It is unfortunate that social problems have to be dealt with in the legal arena. This state of affairs has come to be because there is a concerted programme for proselytizing in India. It is time the social leaders understand the phenomenon and deal with the issue at the society level.” this from the pen of the Top Man belonging to organisation which you call fundamentalist”. It doesn’t smell fundamentalism isn’t it? But definitely your article published smelled like one, and the spiritual image has suffered a battering and taken the backbench, for the time being -i do hope you will recover. To continue the inside story revealed by the Top American pastor whose name cannot be revealed , who unlike you ,CBCI, and other Christian organisations, has taken a more objective stand on the mass conversion issue: ” Mr. Embree, the one who testified in the American commission on religious liberty made the claim that foreign missionaries have not been issued visas for the past several years. This struck me as odd as I have personally seen at least a dozen of these recent arrivals in India in the last couple of years. Talking exclusively to Christian sources, I pieced together a recent case that threatens the social structure of India. In 1997, elections to the position of president of the Seventh Day Adventist church in India were conducted. (The Seventh Day Adventist church is the fastest growing church in India today). A huge majority elected an Indian. The president of the World Seventh Day Adventist church then flew in from Silver Spring, MD., invalidated the election and appointed a Canadian missionary in his place. This missionary, Ron Watts, moved to India on a business visa provided by the embassy here in Washington (they were completely aware that he was a religious missionary), and proceeded to pour in a few million dollars into India(via Nepal) where converts were practically bought. Here is one example how this was done. This last march (while Clinton was visiting India) Watts and two other foreign missionaries chartered a helicopter. Their modus operandi was to fly to a rural area (their Indian operatives would have collected a crowd), drop sweets from the air, land, preach, baptize and then move on. I spoke on the telephone to two people who were personally present at similar events in Ibrahimpatnam and Tenali in Andhra Pradesh. Even these Indians–Christians–felt this to be blatant purchase of converts, and very unchristian. In July this same missionary, anxious to be legitimately elected, flew 50 Indian “church leaders” to Toronto and in a large Adventist world council got himself “elected” unanimously.
I personally spoke to three of these 50 who are now in Maryland. In July this same Watts was chief guest at a meeting of three thousand Indian Adventists here in Maryland. Less than two months later the organizers of this meeting were key promoters of the demonstrations against Vajpayee when he visited. In a troubling twist to this story, one of the organizers of this event told me (last Saturday), that if even one Seventh Day Adventist is attacked in India, hundreds of Indians in Fiji will be killed because the recent Fiji coup leader George (Speight) is a protector of Seventh Day Adventists around the world. This missionary Ron Watts continues to do his mischief in India (he lives in Hosur, Tamil Nadu and is the only foreign leader of a church in India) with seeming impunity. Huge amounts of money continue to pour in. I personally heard him disparage the BJP government in December, 1998 (he looked at his watch and said it would be only hours before the BJP government fell– eliciting supportive laughs from the several dozen Indians around). At that time however I did not know the extent of his operations in India. I feel that it is our duty–Hindu, Christian, and Muslim–to put our house in order before we prepare to fix our country. In the case of this missionary even his Indian supporters are now concerned because of the social damage this sort of conversions can cause. I promised the Indian Christians I spoke to that I would share this story with all of you and see if anything can be done to stop this particular missionary. Quote the article but please not my name. We Christians have become hyper-sensitive about these matters. By the way the world Adventist leader who flew in to India and invalidated the election resigned a year later when he was caught for illegal money laundering. The story appeared in the Washington Post as well as other major papers. My plea is this. Let us develop the ability to criticize that which we hold dear to us. It may be religion, it may be country but this is the only way we can grow. I love my religion but I love my country more and I’m sensitive when its interests are threatened. This does not mean that I’m exonerating the RSS/VHP. All I’m saying is that there is no sense enough to go around and we shouldn’t avert our eyes especially when the evidence hurts us.” To conclude with one of my favorite quotes from Mahatma Gandhi: “Conversion brings about deep disdain for one’s old religion and its followers, i.e. one’s old friends and relatives. All these do great harm to the country.” (In Mahadev Desai’s “Day to Day with Gandhi”, Volume VII, p 184.) Sincerely, Laura Kelly, In southern Tamil Nadu.