A few days ago Amruta Fadnavis, wife of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, faced a lot of flak on social media, after she attended a “Be Santa” campaign launched by a radio station. Critics called this decision of Ms. Fadnavis as knowing or unknowingly spreading a Christian evangelist agenda.
Now a BJP MLA from Mumbai’s Bandra West named Ashish Shelar has come under fire for outright lending his support for a Christian evangelism event:
https://twitter.com/ShelarAshish/status/942000347383521280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Shelar who is also the President of BJP Mumbai, is seen urging people to join the event presented by “Prabhu Yesha Janmotsav”, which as per its Facebook page seems to be some kind of a Christmas celebration.
As per the poster, the event features the Hillsong church and an Acharya Vikas Massey. Going to the Acharya’s Facebook page, one sees that he openly clams to serve Jesus:
Scrolling through his Facebook page, one finds that he regularly conducts Evangelism events across India:
Also while sharing information about the event in Mumbai, he is seen using phrases like, “His kingdom will have no end”, which some might argue is a call to spread Christianity:
Even the Church named Hillsong, which features on the poster, has a questionable past. One of its pastor was in the past accused of sexually abusing a seven year old boy and the church too being accused of being a “cult”.
Considering the decision of the BJP MLA to extend support to such an event, many Social Media users decided to express their anger:
https://twitter.com/amolsarnaik/status/942040125449691136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/Ish_Bhandari/status/942022746774544385?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/masala_chaas/status/942025565170753536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/ShefVaidya/status/942037641452666880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/Ateendriyo/status/942031980555853824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/s_navroop/status/942021659287994368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/UnSubtleDesi/status/942034540469526528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
It remains to be seen as to what is the response of the senior BJP leadership to this matter, and whether the party would provide any advisory to its members over such matters in the future.