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Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma on Friday asked whether the Congress was attempting to put pressure on the court by staging protests after two nuns from Kerala were arrested over charges of forced religious conversion and human trafficking.
"This has nothing to do with votes. Earlier too, a delegation from the Congress party had come, and we facilitated their meeting with them (the two nuns)," Sharma told ANI. "But they should understand whether by doing this, they are trying to pressure the court? This is a matter on which the police have taken action; whether bail will be granted or not, the court will decide," he said. The nuns from Kerala were arrested at Durg Railway Station in Chhattisgarh on July 25. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) strongly condemned the arrest, claiming that, according to reports, the women had explicit written permission from their parents but were physically assaulted after being arrested. In Kerala, both the ruling Left Democratic Front and the Opposition United Democratic Front condemned the arrest and accused the BJP government in Chhattisgarh of undermining religious freedom. Kerala BJP President Rajeev Chandrasekhar has also expressed his support to the nuns and said that he did not believe the nuns were indulging in forced religious conversion. Today, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor condemned as "a grave injustice" the arrest of two nuns. "The arrest of nuns is a grave injustice. They have not done anything against the law," Tharoor told reporters in the national capital. He said that the nuns were just taking some tribal girls to the city for employment. "Seeing this, members of the Bajrang Dal raised a false alarm and the police came and arrested the nuns. This is not right. When everyone is raising objections to it, they are still in jail for the last one week... BJP's Kerala unit is saying they will travel to Chhattisgarh to get them bail. Nothing has happened so far," he said. Congress MP Jebi Mather said charging the nuns with human trafficking and human conversion is a gross injustice. "Congress has been standing, speaking, and protesting from day one, demanding that this unjust arrest be addressed. We have been condemning it and taking all steps, from writing letters to protests inside and outside Parliament. Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, KC Venugopal, and everyone else have been fighting for justice for the sisters," she said. (ANI)
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