Some Christians in India are having nightmarish times ahead of this Christmas. 

Alongside brazen attacks on Christian targets in several states and a Missionaries of Charity home in Gujarat state charged with “conversion,” the conversion issue has escalated with an anti-conversion bill presented Dec. 21 in the legislature of southern Karnataka state.

“This is a Christmas whammy for us,” Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore, head of the Catholic Church in Karnataka, told the Register.

“Wherever the BJP is in power, they are pushing this [anti-conversion] law to polarize the Hindus against minorities,” said Archbishop Machado.

“The Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill 2021” has several stringent provisions including 10-year imprisonment for conversion by “fraud or inducement,” and mandates prior permission from senior government officials for anyone intending to change their faith.

Eight Indian states, most of them ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have enacted anti-conversion legislation, which is euphemistically called “Freedom of Religion” legislation. The BJP is also India’s ruling party at the national level.

Read more at National Catholic Register