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They are accusing the government of using the state machinery to help evangelist Brother Anil Kumar organise the Jesus Christ Blessings Festival -- he is the son-in-law of Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.
Husband of Reddy`s daughter Sharmila, Anil Kumar began preaching over a decade ago under the aegis of Anil World Evangelism but it was not until December 2008 that he started gaining prominence, organising his first Jesus Christ Blessings Festival in Secunderabad.
Although he is known for maintaining a low profile, huge hoardings announcing the arrival of the 38-year-old Brother have come up in several cities and towns across Andhra Pradesh.
Other than the fact that he is the Chief Minister`s son-in-law, Opposition parties feel there is more to Anil Kumar`s sudden exposure to the public. The publicity overdrive since December has coincided with the state government`s spat with another self-styled evangelist K A Paul, founder of Gospel to Unreached Millions and Global Peace Initiative. Paul publicly accused the Chief Minister of being vindictive because he did not provide funds for his elections and was, therefore, being denied funds for various charity organisations.
Political parties are alleging that the CM is propping up his son-in-law to counter and suppress K A Paul and are questioning the source of funds for the huge programmes that Anil Kumar has been organising.
Anil World Evangelism is a little known organisation. Where is it getting all the money from to organise such huge events? Crores have been spent on life-size billboards that have been put up all over Vijayawada. Who is behind the mobilisation of the 2 to 3 lakh people who attended the programme said TDP spokesperson N Rajkumar.
Government property and machinery are misused, he is provided police security and escort everywhere he goes, the state government arranges for full security and bandobast for his programmes which have all the markings of a government-sponsored function”, said Rajkumar.
Sources at All India Christian Council say that though Anil Kumar, a Brahmin who converted to Christianity, married Reddy`s daughter Sharmila 10 years ago, he shot into limelight as an evangelist only after his father-in-law became Chief Minister. Before starting his state-wide tour, he addressed gatherings in the US, UK and Australia.
Anil Kumar established Anil World Evangelism (www.aweministries.org) in Hyderabad and the office is located in Aditya Elite in Somajiguda area, opposite the CM`s residence campus. The evangelist resides in Bangalore but visits Andhra very frequently for religious meetings. When The Indian Express called him for his comments, Anil Kumar`s close associate Paul Prasad, Director of Administration, said he would call back but eventually did not.
Abhilash Samuel, a spokesperson of Anil World Evangelism, denied that the organisation gets any support from the government.
“It is his popularity and the faith of people in him that draws the crowds. Anil Kumar believes that Jesus Christ is a God of relationship, not a God of a particular religion. His philosophy appeals to people,” he said.
Evangelist K A Paul, who is surrounded by many controversies, alleges that the Chief Minister has ‘crippled’ him.
“He has cancelled my preach missions across the state. He has crippled me by getting police to file cases against me, including a land-grabbing case. Anil Kumar was my disciple until August 2007 until I crossed swords with his father-in-law Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. Tremendous publicity is being arranged for Anil Kumar in an effort to highlight him and restrain me.”
“His religious meetings resemble political meetings where crowd mobilization is done by those in power. It is very clear they are aimed at political gains. In spite of all this, I can say that you can buy billboards and advertising space and banners but you cannot buy divinity. There are God-made preachers and man-made preachers”, said Paul.
BJP`s Krishna Reddy said: “Now that his father-in-law is Chief Minister, he is taking advantage of the political clout. Anil Kumar wants to surpass K A Paul in becoming an international evangelist.”
About nine years ago, Anil Kumar was caught on the wrong side of the law. In November 2001, an illegal international calls racket was busted in Hyderabad following a complaint by BSNL that some telephone booth operators were misusing the services of a private telecom company to terminate incoming international voice calls bypassing the VSNL gateway and BSNL network. Police booked cases for violation of the Indian Telegraphic Act and Section 420 of IPC against four persons that included Anil Kumar who surrendered to the police.
Faced with all kinds of accusations, Rajasekhara Reddy, who was in the Opposition at that time, even defended his son-in-law in the Assembly stating that it was political vendetta. An official at Punjagutta police station where the case was registered said that they did not find any evidence of Anil Kumar`s involvement. The chargesheet is yet to be filed.
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praise the lord! thank you for the powerful ministry in a.pradesh let it be in Orissa also.
Hi, I think drawbacks are on us. How do these people dare to convert our brothers. I think we need to introspect. Bloody these rascals are endangering our religion that too in Hindustan. Get together HINDUS i think we are now in emergency mode. I never mean to say to forcefully convert others to Hindu but remember never let vice-versa happen also. Just look in J&K, NE states. Now Hindu in these state feels unprotected. Neither the government now our religion helps these people. This is reason why BJP gained first time in this states. but sorry to those hindus in these states we cant help them now. I hope with this rate of conversion in another 8-10 yrs hindus will be in minority in Hindustan, and interestingly we won't be provided such facility as minority as we are providing to other religion and believe me history speaks, just go through it & u will get answer. SO DEAR HINDUS NOW STOP FIGHTING AS BENGALI TAMIL MARATHI BIHARI. FIRST SAVE RELIGION THEN TALK ABOUT CASTE AND LANGUAGE.
Dear Ashish, if you only knew why Christians are doing this; if you only knew the truth about heaven and hell; you would go quickly to them and not them to you. Secondly, conversions are never forced. There is no such thing, as real conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit of God. All Christians do is give the good news of salvation and if a person responds with faith, then it is God Himself who works supernaturally in the life of the hearer bringing him to a point of conversion. Yes, what you say is true. It is time for introspection, but not to produce violence, but to ask the hard question - WHY? Is there truth in what these Christians are saying? Get a bible and start reading and pray and ask God to reveal himself to you. You will be pleasantly surprised to know that He cares enough to answer you!
halleluya am nitheeshs from ongole u have conducted the meeting in our town. it is very glad to see so many people on the three days of prayer we r very happy that u have conducted the prayer in our town .yhe amazing thing is that the youth meeting conducted on saturday we have changed ourselves on that day .being born christian but not gave our full time not full even 10 min in our day .but after the youthmeeting i have changed my selves and asked jesus for choosing me as his child .This is all because of the AWEMINISTERIES only thank u so much
Thank God this YSR is no more to help conversion.Leaders like Antony and Chandi were the CMs in Kerala which is having maximum christians in india.But they have not done anything to spread this evangelist philosophy.In Andhra, majority of people are poor and illiterate.Wealth is being accumulated in very limited pockets.Casteism is another evil. The so called "generous netas" have not brought anything to curb this,instead they are doing some gimmicks in front of these innocents and being hailed as great leaders.This is the agony of a land which produced great scholars,generous kings and is possessing the most beautiful and the oldest languge.If you r able to pour money, any body can do convertion with these people even towards Satanism. If you are a Hindu and want to know the virtues of Jesus speeches, you need not become a Christian. Hinduism gives that freedom to people. But first learn about Bhagvat Gita,upanishads& vedas.Even Europians are now studying these valuable teachings.
lets understand some things here. 1. No one can change/convert a person's heart except the Lord himself - not Bro.Anil Kumar, not K.A Paul, not me nor any other evangelist. (1 cor 3:7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. )2. Every christian has been given a mandate called "The great commission", by Christ himself, to preach the good news (that Christ, the saviour died for sinful people and who ever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life).3. If(as alleged) people are being forcefully converted then there is no point in that and it is wrong.4. If they have a genuine relationship with Christ and they hate the very sin they so loved before they met Christ then no one can hurt their eternal prospects.5. Christianity has done tons of good to the world. Lets not subtract that fact in our discussions.
Conversion is a sin. Those who are in to this are sinners. To support, no one wants to convert 4-legged animal nor a bird... why 'coz there is no ''profit'' associated with it.. it is not that animals cannot be trained ( come on animals in zoo are very well trained).. Conversion is a business these days bring a hindu, convert him and pay him for abandoning his faith.. and then start collecting money from people abroad under the new convert's name. neither the new convert nor the sponsors know where exactly the ''money'' goes! People like anil Kumar who swindles money are left scot-free only he takes ''Jesus'' name ... anyone who questions is it is either tagged extremists or a it is a blasphemy..
kamala it is ones own wish to convert to other religion or not , U think as if ur religion is the only true religion i think that it is not and so i have converted to christianity there is nothing wrong its my wish i dont believe in hinduism thats why i converted to christianity i have the religion to preach my religion and let me tell u one thing christians help the poor the suppressed where as u hindus kick and treat them as animals and another thing no one takes money and converts its just a false allegation from the high caste hindus i m sick of this hinduism which acts as a barrier to development of india
i truely pity , for those who believe in conversions and those people who force ppl 2 do this are the biggest selfish ppl.
To throw light on bro. Anil Kumar's life. Many folks inadvertently think that God lives in people's heart by default. That is a misconception, because we have all gone astray as sheep. But, Jesus says, 'Behold I stand at the door (of your heart) and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him". Since birth, we are spiritually dead. By inviting Jesus into our heart, we become spiritually alive. Only then he comes into our hearts by our own invitation. This is personal. It is the greatest decision that one can make. When we ask Jesus to come and take control of our sinful nature we become transformed like bro. Anil Kumar. It is not of his own doing!
Basically, we are all born with sin. To be set free from our sins is a great gift and blessing. Jesus gave his life for me, no one ever did. He is waiting outside the door of your heart, when you hear his knock, please open the door. He does not force himself upon any human being. We cannot force our friendship upon anyone, it has to be mutual and acceptable. When we agree to become friends, no one can separate us. Jesus is my friend and also Anil Kumar's. We don't know how Anil Kumar met Jesus. Tho we don't see Jesus he is right where you are. Try calling out to him, it will not hurt. Go ahead, give it a try. Ask him if he is real, to meet you right there. He will! Jesus says, "He that comes to me, I will in no way refuse him or cast him out". Jesus is the Way, the Truth and Life.
indians never attacked anyone ,never were inclined on mass murder and torture in the name of religion and religion never hampered the progress of science the way western religions do there were never any religious conflicts between eastern religions (Buddhism ,Hinduism ,Sikhism etc).. this is not a coincidence but the fact that these all are much wiser than the western thought..spiritually also its totally bankrupt and is based on illogical stories(watch documentary religulous). I can not and should not change the way how you feel about your religion …I can only implore you think again on this do not go by what is fed to you by others ..try some other (better ) philosophies like Hinduism ,Buddhism etc. knowing them cannot do any harm but give you real power to choose wisely your way to god…even in the end if you feel cristianity is good its your wish. You have right to choose whats best for you and you cannot do so without knowing all your choices…
I live in a catholic country, but here people are not like converted indian who always says more than a original catholic.
seems like people are still under the bondage of religious feelings.Christianity is not a religion but a way to life.It teaches to love one another and bear all the persecutions without violence. That is the reason you see that nothing is being done in reaction to the persecutions.Also all the people who wrote above did you ever help any needy who is not even related to you??? Would you be able to love strangers and truly meet their felt needs? never. we all are selfish. we don't love even our spouse more than we love ourselves. But Christ Taught us to Love everyone and forgive people who persecute us. That is the reason you never find any violence from Christians.May God open all your eyes to look into the truth of life and not bondage of caste and religion.stop looking at everything with negative eyes.One day you will see yourself totally negative. You will be vexed with life. Live life to the fullest by loving others and being loved too.God loves you.
For all your points supporting Christianity, Christianity never exists, because Jesus was a Jew.So in that way all the followers of Jesus are Jews.
Is one a Jew by birth or Jew by belief? How does Jesus become a Jew and what stops any non Jew from following him? If you could explain
dear friend western countries with christian practicing had colonised the most of the world with violence, refer world histroy of european countries
Now if Western Countries colonised the world violence does that make Christianity itself violent? Could they have been wrong? Could they have called themselves Christians while going against it at the same time.
god is with the people.....like you dont feel or have stress of all above ....dont take the negative stress....many may speak many things in our daily life but you dont mine that..plz leave the above....
The article is a good literary compilation but what is the purpose of doing this ? Our country is democratic country but still minorities are targets. Because of the acts of few whole community is under scrutiny, Why ? All Muslims are termed Terrrorist and Christians as missionaries. Why not the acts of RSS and VHS and Ram Sene create similar impact on Hindus. Its high time intellectuals should be proactive and encourage good. Our habits and acts if they do not create hell for society that is enough, let good in all religions dominate the minds of the people. Shun narrow minded approach and insecure feelings. There are lot of people who speak big things and political lectures for their party's sustenance and are dividing people over these issues. Newspapers should make effort to change people mindset of people to accept good in all religions, and to ignore selfish politicians.
Decade back the first visitors to my house on my visit to India, were two ladies who wanted me to convert to Christianity.I was shocked and felt insulted. Being a scientist, I never felt the need for God. In fact scientific investigation has shown that praying can only aggravate the problem for any disease, say like the heart surgery, and if others pray for a patient, the patient could even die.I always thought that the christian missionaries were targeting the poor and they are not in mind.The christian missionaries were monitoring every house, and I being away from India and the villa was locked all the time, these missionaries knew that which house they have not visited. Since this missionary attack was on me I felt that I should look at what is going on in India by these criminals.Till then I had not read a single religious book. But now I had read every book on Christianity and Islam and found that human race is better off with out the religions
Yes, organized religion is the worst. The beauty of Hinduism is that GOD can remain personal and inside the home and body in spirt. However, when you become GODless and raise children without religion or culture, this is what evangelists prey on. These evangelists attack their prey when these GODless kids get into trouble with rough patch in life and start searching for spirituality and inner peace. Before you know, your child embraces Christianity just like YSR's SIL Anil Kumar did. Basically, most Hindus fall in this category. Isn't this stupidity to ditch one and embrace another far worse?
I reached the similar conclusion years ago. Now I absolutely abhor all organized religions. Spirituality as well as humans must be freed from this evil grip of religion which is threatening the stability of, not only India but many other countries. I am of firm opinion that all religions teaches nothing but HATE of others irrespective of what the proponents of various religions say. Religion is curse of India that does not lets its people live in peace and harmony. I think all right thinking people should come out and speak against the very concept of organized religion of all kind. There should not be a single proverbial sacred cow or quran protected from rational thinking of humans. I think that will discourage development the Divine Authority Syndrome (SAD) in the sick mind of religious people. People suffering from SAD can be very violent in imposing their way of thinking on others, as we all know. People from BJP, Various Senas ,Talibans and Jehadis are the best examples of sick minds suffering from Divine Authority Syndrome (SAD)
YSR beats Naidu Teleugu Desam and Praja Rajyam by aggressive marketing of Chritianity. Only the top supporter get the block minority votes. So the others are naturally the losers. YSR's rating with Italian madam will get a higher rating now.
When the Majority community is trying polarise the population on religious line and bully the minorities, what is wrong in some practising vote bank ploicy.
Hindus are innocent. Its the minorities who create trouble. The converts are shameless fellows
YSR this is end of your and your party congress era in A.P.
Some people in the western countries call this Karma, But look at this weird situation. India the land of spirituality- well before Jesus was born. Jesus comes to India as a young seeker- learns Hindu spirituality and yoga (not just asanas) preached by practising vedic brahmins in Banaras. Then driven out from Banaras as he tries to spread the knowledge to everyone without barriers. 2000 years later, Christ's message comes back to the same India, and this time through a converted Hindu brahmin, spreading the message of Christ (learnt from spiritual India) back to Hindus, and this time with state sponsorship. In Australia they call this boomerang a thing that returns to the thrower.But YSR please remember that constitutionally India is still secular. May be he has better advice on how to wiggle out of this and promote this sect so brazenly using state funds..
Dear madhu,Your total concept looks so funny man.I accept india is very rich in culture You know how?hundreds of wifes for one guy??????
Whats your problem if one has 100 wifes? Bill clinton had se* in white house....is that good? Religious conversion is bad.
How disgracefull! I thought the CM of AP is a Hindu as his Name sounds. But The CM turned out to be a christian. This shows the eveil designs of the Christian Missinaries how they are converting hindus to chritianity and not changing their names. Now the so called seculars Mulla yadav, CPI commies will remain silent and not say single word how these Christian Missionaries are spreading christianity with state government support! Now the media also will not make it a big issue. Shame on these politicians!
Under Sonia's patronage, some Christians seem to be forgetting their basic teachings, and becoming sinners. They have advance booking in hell waiting for them.
Francis,I had booked hell for myself after being told that religious people go to heaven. Now, are you telling me that I have to deal with these idiots even after death? Please tell me you are just kidding or you wrote that out of frustration or something.
Congress is implementing Hidden agneda to convert India into Christian land. People should vote this colonial mentality party sooner before it is too late.
YSR Reddy is a Christian which people doesn't know about. And secondly he is out converting people through tax payers money. What a shame, this can only happen in India. I remember PC Chidambaram saying he has to act against Ram Sena, but we believe Congress is to banned to spreading communalism and playing with the sentiments of Hindus. YSR's role in Karnataka and Orissa voilence should be probed, the truth should be brought in public. These guys with the blessings of Soina are working to fulfill some hidden agenda.
How dare he can do such a thing to promotr a particular religion. This is all happening due to Sonia's blessings. He shound be bannished.
If YSR's family is into Evangelisation, Why is he in charge of appointments and controlling funds of the TTD. In this nation can a non muslim or non christian control thier respective religious institutions.No wonder he appoints a liquor barron as chief of TTD. They say they are secularist, but the Governments take all the Hindu funds for charity and swallow it.
Use of government machinary to promote any religion in any shape or form is morally wrong in any country, especially a secular country like india.But the corrupt politicians can't seem to help using religion to get votes or promote their long term poitical agenda. This will keep happening until average Indian does not realize that religion is not as good as they have been brainwashed into believing. Expansion of non-native religions like Christianity and Islam is not going to be good, neither for India nor for the adherents of these two religions. Indian Christians and Muslims should convert back to native Indian religions for the ecnomic well being as well as for security and spirituality.Both of these religions are based on fear and lack spritualiy. The ultimate aim is power grabbing through increaing the number by detesable means like conversion or biological means.
this is great example of secularism. he should be sent to kabul and get him to convert mullah omar and other mullahs there. we will see how long he will survive.
India is a fertile ground for mankind.We Hindus can no longer afford to live in isolation as we and our forefathers did for centuries because the consequence are grave and the threat is very real.