“Baghel patronizes religious conversion”: former Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh

Raipur (Chhattisgarh) [India], October 28 (ANI): Accusing Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel of patronizing religious conversion, former Chief Minister and BJP national vice-president Raman Singh alleged that the process of building churches was started by CM Baghel and the politics of polarization began during Baghel’s administration.

Dismissing the charge of polarisation being levelled by Congress on the saffron party, Raman said that not a single allegation (of religious conversion) was levelled on the BJP government during its 15-year-long tenure.

“The storm of conversion started after Bhupesh Baghel became the Chief Minister and he also gave patronage to it,” alleged Raman while speaking to ANI in Raipur.

He further alleged that the way tribal people were attacked and sent to jail in Bastar as well as Narayanpur districts for not changing their religious faith was testimony to this.

“In a way, the politics of polarisation started in the last five years. In the last 15 years, we did not encourage such activities and the people of Chhattisgarh are now suffering due to the problem created by the Bhupesh-led government,” he said.

On being asked about Congress’s allegation that a large number of churches were built during the rule of the previous government, the former CM said “In 15 years of rule, BJP worked for the construction of ‘Devgudi’ (temple) and thousands of Devgudi constructed with the support of the Chhattisgarh Government. Then government (referring to the previous BJP-led government) had neither provided financial assistance for the construction of churches nor gave permission for it.”

“Few churches might have been constructed illegally but the web of churches from Bastar to Surguja took place during the tenure of Bhupesh Baghel,” Raman Singh alleged.

Chhattisgarh is one of the five states set to hold elections this year. The state is scheduled to vote in two phases on November 7 and November 17, with the vote count taking place on December 3.

There are 90 seats in the state assembly, in 2018 the Congress led by Bhupesh Baghel won an absolute majority winning 68 seats with a 43.9 % vote share.