Jharkhand raids 88 church NGOs: Rs 250 crore on conversions, fomenting political trouble?

New Delhi/Ranchi: The Jharkhand Police on Friday swooped down on 88 Christian missionary-operated non-governmental organisations (NGOs) over grave charges of misusing foreign funds for religious conversion of tribals and political subversion. This comes in the wake of the Missionaries of Charity children-on-sale scandal.

Till the time of filing of this report, 33 NGOs had already been raided. Raids on the rest would be completed on Friday, Jharkhand police sources told MyNation.

These NGOs have been reported to have received in excess of Rs 250 crore in funding between 2013 and 2016 under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

According to a CID report accessed by MyNation, of these 88 Christian missionaries-operated NGOs, the top 11 have received funds between Rs 7.5 crore and Rs 39 crore; those on the list till the 31st position have received between Rs 7.5 crore and Rs 1.84 crore. The rest have received less than Rs 1.84 crore.

The report makes damning allegations on these NGOs which run “private schools, hospitals, and shelter homes”.

“These missionary NGOs,” the report says, “train tribal women as nurses and sends them abroad. They also pressurise them to convert to Chirstianity.”

“Many of these missionary institutions operate in the far-flung areas of the state and lure simple-minded tribals to convert to Christianity forcibly,” the report said.

The report also mentioned that many of these institutions were indulging in political subversion and anti-State activities. “Many of these institutions, especially the missionary NGOs, misuse funds received under FCRA to foment anti-State rallies and protests,” the report noted.

According to highly-placed sources in the Jharkhand government, the CID had been gathering intel about the activities of these NGOs for a long time and the exercise had been completed about a month ago.

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