Catholic nuns’ arrest over ‘false’ charges rocks Indian parliament

The arrest and jailing of two Catholic nuns on false charges of human trafficking and conversion has rocked the Indian parliament, with opposition members seeking their immediate release. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha (upper house), on July 28 called the arrests an example of “BJP-RSS mob rule.” He was referring to the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its parent body, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (national volunteer corps), by their acronyms. Sisters Vandana Francis and Preeti Mary, who are members of Assisi Sisters of Mary Immaculate (ASMI), a Franciscan congregation of the Syro- Malabar Church, were arrested on July 25 by the Railway Police at Durg railway station in central Chhattisgarh state. Chhattisgarh is a BJP-ruled state, and its chief minister, Vishnu Deo Sai, defended the action, terming it a serious matter of “human trafficking under the guise of religious conversion.” He asserted that the law would take its own course. However, Rahul Gandhi alleged “systematic persecution of minorities” and a “dangerous pattern” of targeting individuals for their faith. “Religious freedom is a constitutional right,” he asserted. Sisters Francis and Mary had gone to Durg railway station to pick up three young women, aged between 19 and 22, to be employed as domestic help in three convents in the state. As the nuns and the girls were showing their tickets to a railway official, a mob arrived and surrounded them, said Father Josh Abraham from Raipur archdiocese, based in the state’s capital.
“The members of the mob claimed to belong to Bajrang Dal, a militant Hindu group, and accused the nuns of forcibly taking away the girls for religious conversion,” the priest, who is a lawyer and gathered details of the incident, told on July 28. The railway police arrived and took away the nuns, the girls, and a boy who accompanied them for the journey from their homes to Durg.
“The police later took the three girls to a shelter home. The nuns and the boy were charged with human trafficking and religious conversion, and remanded in custody for 14 days by a local court,” Abraham said. The priest-lawyer said the police had said they would release the nuns and the boy in the evening, but instead jailed them. The girls are members of the Church of South India (CSI), a union of Protestant denominations. One of them allegedly told the police that she was taken to Durg without her consent. “This could have been done by pressuring the girl, which led to totally false charges being laid against the nuns,” Abraham alleged.
He said the nuns’ bail applications were filed on July 28 and hoped they would be released soon, as the “charges against them are totally false and baseless.” Both the nuns are natives of Kerala, and their arrest and jailing caused a stir in the southern state. Parliamentarians belonging to the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) from Kerala staged a protest in the parliament complex, waving placards that read “Stop attacks on minorities.” Federal Minister of State for Minority Affairs George Kurian, who is also from Kerala, refused to take a clear stand, saying “the matter was subjudiced.”