For Sangh, Christians are bad in Dangs, their schools fine in city

Take these.

There are many, many more.

As the campaign against missionaries and their institutions gather momentum, and as the government observe an indifferent silence, the men who rule the state continue to make the most of what the Christian missionaries have contributed to the field of education.

Chief Minister Patel, whose children too studied in Christian schools, is obviously on the defensive. “Conversion is bad. Issues should not be mixed. People will send their children wherever they get good education. Don’t non-Hindus send their children to good Hindu schools?” hesays.

If Keshubhai’s logic sounds skewed, just listen to A K Patel: “Christian schools try to influence Hindu students in hilly areas, but can’t do this in cities because the parents are educated.” He says he did not send his children to Christian schools but admits his grandchildren go there.

Mahendra Trivedi, whose son goes to a missionary school in Gandhinagar, goes a step further. He claims he could be among the reasons the missionaries are restrained in the cities. “They cannot do in Gandhinagar what they are doing in the Dangs, or other places. And, they cannot do it here perhaps because people like me send their children to these schools,” he says.

The logic of convenience is clear: Education is good for people like us but bad for the poor people in the poorest district of the Dangs. Says Hemantbhai Chapatwala, Minister of State for Law: “I never educated my children in Christian schools, but my daughter has put her children in one such school in Surat. It is her family’s decision. Christianschools in backward areas try to influence Hindu children; in cities, they can’t do this even if they try because the sanksaras (values) are deep-rooted in parents.”

Deputy Minister for Labour and Employment Parshotambhai Solanki, whose son studies in Mt Carmel School, Gandhinagar, too thinks missionaries are a bad influence elsewhere but not in the cities. He says: “They provide good education, organise a lot of sports and cultural activities, and I have no complaint (about my son’s school). But it is fact that Christian schools in backward areas do try to influence Hindu students.”

Chudasama says he never noticed any attempt to influence children in the name of moral education and Bokhiria too has no complaints either. But yet they don’t find any reason to disbelieve the stories about Christian schools elsewhere. Says Bokhiria: “I have heard that Christian schools indulge in undesirable activities and there was this case when the Bible was distributed to students in Rajkot. But I have no suchpersonal experience.”

Minister of State for Transport Shah agrees: “I have heard that Christian schools try to influence Hindu students. But my daughter is studying in Mt Carmel School and they provide good education. Nor do they try to teach Christianity in the name of moral education.

Chairman of the Gujarat State Financial Corporation I K Jadeja, Deputy Minister for Forest and Environment Prabhatsinh Chauhan too send their children to missionary-run schools. They say the schools are good and they don’t have any complaints.