Author: Prakash Bhandari
Publication: The Times of India
Date: July 10, 2001
Kota: Workers of the Bharatiya
Janata Party and the Shiv Sena here are after Bishop M.A. Thomas, the founder
of the Emmanuel Mission Family. The Bajrang Dal recently organised a Kota
bandh demanding an inquiry against Bishop Thomas, who is away in the U.S.
The BJP workers want the Padmashri
bestowed on him to be withdrawn. Kota MP Raghuveer Singh Kaushal has written
to Union home minister L.K. Advani demanding the withdrawal of the Padmashri
given to Bishop Thomas this year for social work. The BJP has charged him
with forcing the inmates of the orphanage run by the Emmanuel Orphanage
Society (EOS) to embrace Christianity. They have also accused Bishop Thomas
of forcing children whose parents are alive, to live in his orphanage as
orphans.
Last year, Bishop Thomas raised
Rs 4.56 crore from the U.S. alone for the orphanages that he runs. These
donations came to the EOS after fulfilling all the requirements of the
Foreign Currency Regulations Act. The EOS is authorised to accept foreign
donations.
Samuel Thomas, the bishop's son,
admits that his father raises funds abroad for the EOS. The people of Kota
say that Bishop Thomas was a poor man 30 years ago, but has now built up
an empire. They suspect that Bishop Thomas gets foreign funds for converting
people and the large estates that he owns in Kota, Udaipur and Deoli should
be investigated.
Collector J.C. Mohanti has already
ordered a probe into the functioning of the orphanage. The papers relating
to the funding and how children are brought to the orphanage are being
examined. It was recently discovered that some of the children who were
brought to the orphanage at Kota as orphans were not really orphans. They
were admitted there by touts who had promised a good life and a bright
future for their children to their parents. In most cases, they were admitted
there as orphans after procuring a false certificate from a sarpanch in
Bihar.
The story began with the arrival
of the Arunachal Pradesh police in Kota. They came to Kota after busting
a gang which procured orphans as well as other children after promising
a bright future for them to their parents. These touts, in some cases,
even took money from the parents. Six children from Arunachal were discovered
at the orphanage while five other missing children could not he traced.
Incidentally, the principal of the
orphanage is a Congress corporator, Charlotte Samu.
According to the SP, Kota, a police
party which had gone to Katihar in Bihar from where these children were
brought found that all the children were not orphans, but a false certificate
was obtained from some sarpanch certifying that they were orphans. It was
an illegal act and punishable under the law. After this incident, 25 children
were brought from Manipur for admission in the orphanage but as it was
facing an agitation from the BJP, the orphanage refused to entertain the
children and they were sent back.
The orphanage, as per the rules,
would admit children only after ascertaining that they were orphans, for
which the persons bringing them to Kota managed to get the certificates.
Presently the orphanage has 708 boy and 417 girls.
Mr Samuel Thomas said there was
nothing shady about the orphanage and the Society was ready to face any
investigation. He said the children were admitted only after ascertaining
that they really were orphans, children of refugees and children of lepers.
But the police said that the EOS
was indulging in some kind of an organised racket to get children for its
orphanages as it was trying to get huge donations from abroad.
Bishop Thomas came to Kota 35 years
ago. He grew up in south India in a very poor family. He was thrashed by
late Dau Dayal Joshi, former MP from Kota, 35 years ago, when he tried
to distribute some literature on Jesus Christ. He was beaten up later as
he allegedly tried to influence people to embrace Christianity.
Undeterred, Bishop Thomas went on
to set up the Emmanuel Bible Society and later on the Emmanuel Orphanage
Society, Emmanuel Hospital and Emmanuel school and college.
Bishop Thomas' name for the Padmashri
was not recommended by the state government to the President. His name
was sent by the Kerala government as he not only hails from Kerala but
has done social work there too.
BJP MLA Madan Dilawar has led a
campaign against the Emmanuel Society. He has been saying that the society
was coercing people to get converted to Christianity. He raised the issue
in the vidhan sabha also, alleging that Bishop Thomas was indulging in
criminal cases and that he should be stripped of the Padmashri.
Mr Dilawar, when he was minister
of state for social welfare, did nothing against the society. Mr Kaushal
was also a minister in Shekhawat's cabinet, but even he did not raise the
issue then. Now he is asking for a CBI inquiry.
