The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has denied bail to Hindus who mobilized fellow Hindus against Christian conversion in their village. The church-run school in the village had tried to convert Hindu children following which parents stopped sending them to that school. Claiming that those who mobilized Hindu parents to get their wards’ Transfer Certificate were stoking communal conflicts, the court denied them bail.
Hindus of Achankuttam village in Tenkasi district had accused a CSI church-run government-aided primary school in the village of converting their children. The school has been functioning since 1928, and due to weathering, the church administration decided to demolish the school building and tried to build a church there. Villagers protested against this and the church’s attempts to brainwash their children into following Christianity in August.
As a part of their protest, they stopped sending their children to the concerned school and demanded a government school in the village. However, their demands were rejected by the Education Department and Revenue Department. In the meanwhile, Tehsildar filed a complaint against some Hindus who were at the forefront of the peaceful protest of getting their children’s Transfer Certificate.
Police booked 12 Hindus for ‘causing communal conflict’ in the village. They applied for bail in the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, which rejected their bail. They mentioned in their bail petitions that they didn’t cause communal conflicts and that cops booked them by obtaining a fake complaint from Revenue Department officials.
DMK government’s counsel for criminal matters argued that it is compulsory to offer education to children till 5th grade and that not sending children to school is illegal. He said that the School Education Department has sent notices to the concerned parents. Claiming that there is a possibility of law and order issues arising due to petitioners’ actions, he sought the court to not grant bail.
This could be the first case in which the Right To Compulsory Education Act(RTE) is used against parents for trying to protect their children from religious fanatics. Activists have warned for a long time that RTE, which provides immunity to minority institutes, would be weaponized against parents in the future. Yet the BJP government in the center and its intellectuals seem to think it is a good act as it provides free education to children without realizing how it would be weaponized against Hindus. The above issue is nothing but trampling on Hindu rights, and yet no so-called Hindu party would bat an eyelid.
Update: We made an inadvertent error in using ‘bail petition’ instead of ‘anticipatory bail petition’. As per the Daily Thanthi report quoted above, Hindus who were booked were denied anticipatory bail by the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court. It is unclear whether the 12 Hindus have been arrested or not, as no information is available on the mainstream media or social media. We regret the error.
