Senior VHP leader Surendra Jain’s purported claim that the Church has contributed to the drug menace in Assam’s Dima Hasao district has prompted the “shocked, hurt and dismayed” Christian community to convene a meeting of Church leaders on Monday to discuss the “baseless allegation” and come up with a “suitable response”.

According to the United Christian Forum of Dima Hasao (UCFD), the apex body of Church organisations in the district, the meeting will be held in Haflong, the district headquarters, and will be attended by church leaders from the district and neighbouring states.

“We don’t know why they (VHP) are blaming the Church for the drug menace. The only reason I could fathom is that they want to divide the people along the line of faith or why would they blame us? We are shocked, hurt and dismayed,” UCFD president Rev DC Haia Darnei told The Telegraph on Saturday.

“The objective of the meeting will be to discuss the baseless allegation levelled by the gentleman (Jain) and make the people aware of the issue. We will also discuss what would be the best way to respond to the allegation, including filing a formal complaint with the authorities,” Darnei added.

Drug is a problem in several states of the Northeast. The state governments along with central agencies have intensified operations over the past few years to curb the menace.

According to the video of Jain’s speech delivered in Hindi during the launch of a computer centre in Haflong on October 27, the VHP leader had purportedly said: “After coming here, I came to know that girls here are moving ahead in every field of life, boys are lagging behind. This is becoming a big reason for drug addiction. Social organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad are taking this drug addiction as a challenge.... We will join hands with the government here and run a big movement against this drug addiction and we will try to make the Northeast drug-free....”

Jain added: “Today I realised that the drug business is also done on a large scale by the Church. On one hand, the Church is destroying our culture, insulting the traditions and beliefs here and also destroying the life of the people here. Conversion is a challenge, we do answer it but we will also tell the Church. You keep going to the church, the Christians here should follow their faith, we have no objection (to it). But if you disturb the law and order here, hurt the beliefs here, do drug trade, this will not be accepted and the society takes it as a challenge.”

Before convening Monday’s meeting, the UCFD had on October 29 issued a media statement condemning the “prominent” VHP leader for his “derogatory and hateful remarks” accusing “the Christians of supplying drugs in Dima Hasao in his speech” on October 10 “during the inauguration of Joya Thaosen Computer Centre at Haflong”.

Describing Jain’s statement against the Church as a “blatant misuse of freedom of speech and expression”, the UCFD statement further asserted that the Church has always “strived for a drug-free society through the teachings of the Bible on sobriety, self-control and the detrimental effect of harming our bodies through the abuse of intoxicating substances. The Church in no way condones the use and sale of drugs or any intoxicant by its members....”