In a disturbing incident, a Hindutva group allegedly tied two middle-aged women to a tree and harassed them for celebrating Christmas in Odisha’s Jajpur district on Wednesday, December 25.
Deva Sena group, accompanied by local villagers, committed a shocking act of public harassment. The women, whose identities have been withheld for safety reasons, were reportedly celebrating Christmas in their locality when the mob confronted them.
According to reports, the group accused the women of luring villagers into Christianity under the guise of festivities. Despite having no proof of the allegations, the mob dragged the women and tied them to a tree in public view, subjecting them to verbal abuse and humiliation.
A video of the assault that captured the entire traumatic incident surfaced on social media platforms on Saturday, December 28 showing the women bound to a tree, surrounded by an aggressive crowd.
The clip further shows the group leader making inflammatory comments and accusing them of engaging in religious conversion activities, labelling them as “dangerous for society” for their perceived association with Christianity. “We cannot let what happened in Bangladesh here also,” the man said.
Onlookers present there were watching as spectators and recording the scene on their phones.
Local reports suggest that Deva Sena has a history of radical actions and has been increasingly active in the region, targeting minority communities and those they consider to have gone astray from their Hindu roots.
The incident has sparked widespread public outrage with the people demanding strict action against the perpetrators. Activists have also flagged concern about the growing environment of fear among religious minorities in certain parts of the country.
However, this is not an isolated incident, several anti-Christian reports of attacks have emerged during this year’s Christmas celebrations across India.
Reports suggested that these attacks orchestrated by right-wing Hindutva outfits and their affiliates have carried out a systemic campaign of harassment and intimidation targeting Christian communities to express their strong opposition to the Christmas festival.
The right-wing campaigning activities include disruptions of Christian gatherings, public vigilantism, conducting raids in schools to stop Christmas functions, and harassing people for wearing Santa Claus dresses.
However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself attended Christmas hosted by a senior Orthodox Church Bishop at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) in Kerala indicating political strategies which are quite far from the Christian plight in India today.
