Letter to India - Ambassador
His Excellency Shashishekhar Madhukar Gavai,
High Commissioner For The Republic of India,
10 Springfield Road,
Ottawa, Ont., K1M 1C9, Canada.
Your Excellency Shashishekhar Madhukar Gavai :
I am a Canadian Christian who is concerned about religious freedom in India.
On May 12, 2011, a 17-year-old Christian woman, Nirupama Pradhan was raped and killed after school. The woman's father has named a suspect but, according to Asian News, police have not acted towards finding the killer. Police also refused to supply a post-mortem report to the widow of a Christian preacher, killed on January 10, 2011. Some Hindu radicals have confessed to the murder.
On May 8, 2011, Pastor B. Vijaya Kumar and family, walking home from a prayer meeting, were stopped by Hindu radicals and detained for three hours. Police told the pastor and his family to leave the area and that they would not accept responsibility for any further harm to them. Pastor Shivraj Maravi, in Madhya, Pradesh, was prevented from renovating his home where he occasionally held church services. Hindu extremist's accusations led to an arrest. He was charged with forcible conversion under the state anti-conversion act.
In the state of Maharshtra, the construction of a church building was stopped and a boycott was placed on the Christians in the area. The boycott disallowed Christian vehicles from transporting vegetables to market. This cut off the believer's means of livelihood. The Christians were also told to leave the village and that their children would not be allowed to attend the local school.
These kinds of human rights abuses in India need to be addressed by your government. Christians around the world are aware of these incidents and want to see the Indian government get involved in defending the religious freedom of minorities such as Christians. Please share these concerns with Indian leaders and make diplomatic efforts towards increasing religious freedom and towards having anti-conversion laws repealed.
Thank you for hearing my concerns. I have also expressed them to Prime Minister Stephan Harper and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. I will be pleased to hear back from you.
Respectfully and sincerely,
Shawn Stevens
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