When a Hindu in northern India got rid of the idols in his house after several visits to a church in July, Hindu nationalists found the perfect opportunity to make life a nightmare for a pastor’s family.
Since the Hindu nationalists accused Pastor Avianshu Kalra of desecration of Hindu idols and forcible conversion, he and his family have had to leave their home, his wife has suffered pregnancy complications, and his father has been suspended from his work as a journalist after a defamation suit.
‘My mother was all alone and was terrified,’ Pastor Kalra said, when he and his wife had gone to pick up their son from school and his father was away at work. ‘The mob was shouting ‘We will burn you,’’ he added.’ Officers arrived and took the mob to the police station, but no action was taken.
Denying the accusations, Pastor Kalra submitted a written complaint to the Baldev Nagar police station, requesting intervention against extremist threats to life and property.
That evening Hindu extremists filed a complaint, and police registered a First Information Report (FIR) against the pastor, his wife Ritu Kalra, his father Pardeep Gulati and mother Kalpana for allegedly wounding religious feelings and insulting someone’s religion. The complaint was filed under the guidance of the leader of the mob, a member of the Shiv Sena (Army of Shivaji), a Hindu nationalist political party, the pastor said.
Father converted
Pastor Kalra’s father quickly met an influential minister of the state government who instructed the superintendent of police to carry out a fair investigation, but the family left home to avoid arrest, he said.
Gulati, the pastor’s father, had been a Hindu nationalist leader of the Shiv Sena before converting in 1996.
Shiv Sena members have been monitoring Gulati’s movements. ‘They are targeting our church as my father… has gone out of the way to help Christians to get justice and travelled to various cities, helping all those who are being troubled for their faith in Jesus,’ said Pastor Kalra.
The congregation has grown to 100 people in four years. Gulati remains influential and works to help persecuted Christians. After his newspaper and others revealed the harassment the Hindu extremists have inflicted upon his family, hard-line Hindus filed suit alleging defamation.
