BRUSSELS Reuter: A Belgian Jesuit Missionary expelled from India this week without official explanation after 40 years said that he was the victim of anti-Christian bigotry and a plot by the secret police.
Father Willy Vandekerckhove 66 said he was the first foreign missionary to be expelled from India since 1962. He left on Wednesday and has already lodged an appeal in the Supreme Court in Delhi.
Vandekerckhove told a news conference that he had been given no reason for his deportation but Indian newspapers have reported that he was expelled for antinational activities a charge he denies.
I see it from the standpoint of bigotry. They can’t stand that any other religion has any say in India he said.
This was especially the case in the Hindu state of Madhya Pradesh where he worked before moving to neighboring Bihar state in 1983 harassment of foreign missionaries in Madhya Pradesh was commonplace he said.
Vandekerckhove said the he believed his expulsion was the work of a high ranking police officer in Madhya Pradesh who was known to be anti-Christian and bore a personal grudge against him.
The initiative came from the secret police he said.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 5, 1986
