Chennai: A Hindu family from Karnataka was allegedly asked to convert to Christianity and offer prayers at a church by a Christian missionary in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore in exchange for free treatment for their 3-year-old ailing child.
According to a report in the New Indian Express, Iranna Nagur, a 34-year-old Dhaba (hotel) employee and resident of Basavana Bagewadi of Karnataka, struggled to afford proper medical treatment for his three-year-old son. Iranna had already spent over Rs 3 lakh for his son’s treatment.
Reportedly, the poor father has travelled across South India to seek better medical treatment for the child. Finally, he visited a hospital in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore run by a Christian Missionary, which reportedly imposed certain conditions in exchange for free treatment for his son. The missionary asked Iranna to convert to Christianity and offer prayers at a church for at least two months to get free medical treatment at the hospital.
Speaking to the media, Iranna pointed out that he was exhausted as he could not get any financial support from anywhere for his son’s treatment. He said he earned Rs 12,000 per month, but he was forced to spend nearly half of the earnings on the medical treatment of his ailing son.
As per Iranna, when he went to the hospital in Vellore, they promised him of making all the arrangements, including Rs 10 lakh for the bone marrow surgery of his son, with the condition of offering daily prayers at church.
“The talks were also held about the conversion to Christianity. I was determined to accept Jesus because the hospital authorities had promised to take care of all the medical expenses of my son,” detailed Iranna, who has three children, including two daughters.
However, the BLDE Association in the Bijapur district in Karnataka came to Iranna’s rescue by extending help to treat his three-year-old son, who is suffering from Thalassemia. They prevented Iranna and his family from converting to Christianity by providing free treatment to their son. The family has now dropped the plans of converting to Christianity.