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| News published in Hindi evening paper Pradesh Today |
A State police order that asked police in all districts to conduct a survey about Christians living in the area of jurisdiction of each police station, has led to outrage after the secret directive was leaked and newspaper got access to the document.
The secret letter directed that there should be a survey conducted to ascertain the record of each Christian-run institution, number of students studying in the schools, missionary activity and even Christian households at tehsil level in Madhya Pradesh.
The exercise surprised Christians as policemen approached. Secondly, with Census 2011 over, they got suspicious as they were once again being asked about the population and other data. This time it was forceful and in some cases, the clergymen were threatened by police.
Now that the document came in public, the State government is silent. Top officers say that the police has been directed not to collect any such data now.
But they don't utter a word as to why was such a religious profiling ordered in the first place and on whose directions, it was initiated.
Congress has termed the order as unconstitutional and said that it is part of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) agenda to hound the minorities in the BJP-ruled state. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has also said that an inquiry would be conducted to find out how this surve was ordered.
