From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The incidents of Christian preachers entering India on tourist visas and then engaging in religious activities continue to emerge in the country. Also, such persons who illegally engage in proselytization activities, further spread hate against one particular community, specifically to be Hindus in India.
One such similar case has come to the fore amid the ongoing unrest in the state of Manipur, where a Christian missionary, a US National named Daniel Stephen Courney, who was deported and blacklisted from India in the year 2017 entered the country recently on a tourist visa.
Opindia.com, a news website says he was further seen involved in proselytization activities in Manipur under the pretext of doing social service (distributing blankets and mattresses) and preaching Christianity. He later also distributed Bibles and delivered hate speech against Hindus and the BJP-led Indian government.
As per the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, a foreign national entering India on the strength of a Tourist Visa is not allowed to preach and propagate his religion in India.
The incident came to light after Daniel Stephen Courney posted a live video from Manipur on 5th August on Facebook saying that Christians were being persecuted and that the community was being deliberately targeted. “Christianity here is being deliberately targeted. There is a conflict between Meitei and Kuki people. So Kukis are tribal Christians and they are being systematically persecuted. They are being run out of their homes. Their villages are burnt due to their Christian identity,” he could be heard saying in the video.
Further in the 13-minute long live video stream, Courney called the Indian government a ‘radical Hindu government’ and blatantly accused it of allegedly fueling the violence against the Christians. “Several villages in the northeast are Christians
