China alerts its citizens to avoid Indian spiritual courses

BEIJING: China has urged its citizens to stay alert about spiritual courses offered by religious schools in south India saying some of them are mired in “sexual assault” cases.

The alert was issued by the China’s Ministry of Public Security after an actress from the island of Taiwan took to social media and spoke about a course offered by a spiritual school in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh.

“Yi Nengjing, or Annie Yi, an actress from the island of Taiwan, posted on Sina Weibo on Monday promoting lessons of Amma and Bhagavan, creators of the Oneness University based in Chittoor, India,” the tabloid, Global Times said in a report.

The matter became a hot topic of discussion on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. The China Anti-Cult Association (CACA) “forwarded the post and warned the public that some spiritual schools are mired in sexual assault cases”.

The Global Times report was possibly referring to the case of an Indian religious leader- Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who, it said, is serving a 20-year of sentence for imprisoning and raping 200 women of his woman followers.

The actress subsequently took down the post after it created a furore.

“The CACA referred to a case of a so-called Indian religious master named Singh who was reportedly arrested for imprisoning and raping nearly 200 female believers in December 2017,” the report added.