Police recently arrested nine Christians in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly violating the state’s controversial anti-conversion law, which criminalises religious conversion and denies bail to those accused.
The case is cited in a study by International Christian Concern (ICC), a Christian advocacy group, which reports a recent rise in anti-Christian complaints.
The document quotes one of the Christians, Sadhu Srinivas Gautham, who said that about 25 Hindu radicals stormed a prayer meeting last Sunday in Gangapur town, accusing those present of forcibly converting Hindus to Christianity.
“They raged against me,” Gautham said. “It was as if they wanted to kill me on the spot. However, police arrived and escorted us to the police station” where he and six other Christians were charged with violating the anti-conversion law. “They told us we should renounce our Christian faith and go back to Hinduism.”
According to the anti-conversion law, approved last February, “Ghar Wapsi” (homecoming), the reconversion to Hindu-ism, is not forced conversion, even if it is often accompanied by threats and intimi-dation.
According to the ICC, 30 Christians were arrested so far this month; that is up from previous months.

Many parishes of Agartala diocese in the north-eastern state of Tripura on July 25 celebrated the first World Day of Grandpa-rents, declared by Pope Francis.
“Our parishes have traditionally been celebrating the Senior Citizens Day on the Sunday prior or after the feast of Saints Joachim and Anna, the grandpa-rents of Jesus. This year we are celebrating it as World Day of Grandparents and elderly people as suggested by the Holy Father, Bishop Lumen Monteiro of Agartala told Matters India.
Pope Francis instituted the world day for the elderly through a letter dated May 31. The Pope wants the annual celebration on the fourth Sunday in July, close to the feast of the Blessed Virgin’s parents.
Assuring the senior citizens, the Pope said, “I am well aware that this Message comes to you at a difficult time: the pandemic swept down on us like an unexpected and furious storm; it has been a time of trial for everyone, but especially for us elderly persons.”
Pope also said he wanted to celebrate the day, in this particular year, as a long period of isolation ends and social life slowly resumes. “May every grandfather, every grandmother, every older person, especially those among us who are most alone, receive the visit of an angel.”

A Catholic priest in Tamil Nadu’s Kanniyakumari district was arrested July 24 for spreading hate and enmity between religious groups. Father George Ponnaiah, parish priest from Panavilai, triggered a row by allegedly making disparaging remarks about ‘Bharat Mata’ and Hindu religion. The Kuzhithurai diocese condemned his comments made on July 18.
Addressing a meeting at Arumanai in protest against the closure of churches, the ban on conducting prayers in houses and the denial of permission for renovating or constructing churches on private ‘patta’ lands, he alleg-ed remarked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
According to Father Ponnaiah, M.R. Gandhi, a Bharatiya Janata Party legislator from Nagercoil, was responsible for the Mandaikaadu communal riots in 1982. He said the DMK’s victory in the assembly election was the “alms given by the Christians and the Muslims.”
His speech was condemned, among others, by State Minorities Commission chairman S Peter Alphonse.

An Indian Muslim billionaire businessman, based in United Arab Emirates, has come forward to help build a Protestant church in its capital city of Abu Dhabi.
Yusuff Ali Musaliam Veettil Abdul Kader, popularly known as M A Yusuff Ali on July 23 donated 500,000 dirhams (US$136,147 or 10,138,771 Indian rupees) for the construction of a worshipping centre of the Church of South India in Abu Dhabi. Ali is the chairperson and managing director of Lulu Group International, a multinational conglomerate company that operates a chain of hypermarkets and retail companies. Church of South India parish in Abu Dhabi Father Lalji M Philip received the check from Ali.
The church will be built on 4.37 acres of land donated by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces and the de facto ruler of Abu Dhabi.

Media reports claim that Israel-made spyware Pegasus was believed to have been used to track more than 300 Indian phone numbers including those of journalists, politicians, government officials and rights activists.
The Israeli cyber weapon company NSO Group was also fined in 2019 for hacking phones of around 1,400 users around the world, including 121 Indians.
“It is completely unethical as we have the fundamental right to privacy given by the constitution of India and spying on someone’s private life is a threat to the citizens of a democratic country,” Bishop Salvadore Lobo of Baruipur, chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India’s office of social communications, told. “We can understand when the government sometimes spies on some social elements when it thinks that they pose a threat to national security, but targeting only some particular group or person is unacceptable and the government should investigate the latest issue.

Pope Francis on July 16 appointed Fr Deepak Valerian Tauro, rector of St Albert’s College in Ranchi, as the auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Delhi.