Anju Bhargava #ableist #conspiracy #fundie newslaundry.com
(Article was originally posted on December 23, 2025.)
Safalta Kartik, a visually impaired woman from Jabalpur, is on the verge of becoming a teacher after completing her final B.Ed exams – an achievement carved out through years of struggle against disability, poverty, and indifference.
But last Saturday at the Prince of Peace Church in Jabalpur’s Kattanga area, Safalta was allegedly abused verbally, manhandled, and publicly humiliated by Anju Bhargav, the BJP’s district vice president, while attending a Christmas lunch with around 200 visually impaired students from the government-run Andhmukh School. Bhargav allegedly went so far as to say Safalta should be born blind even in her next life.
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Safalta went to the church along with her eight-year-old niece. She recalled, “We went there, listened to some songs and were sitting peacefully when suddenly I started hearing loud noises. My niece was sitting next to me when a woman approached her, held her hand and asked why she had come there.”
Safalta intervened immediately. She said, “I told her to talk to me, not to the child." That, Safalta alleged, triggered a volley of abuses.
“The woman started shouting at me, saying, 'Despite wearing sindoor, you have come to a church to convert. You seem to be into prostitution, and you have brought this child here for that’,” alleged Safalta. “She told me I was blind in this birth because of my past deeds and that I would be born blind again in my next life for coming to a church.”
When Safalta asked her to stop misbehaving, the woman allegedly turned violent. “She tried to grab my hand. I held hers to stop her, but she kept abusing me. Then she grabbed my mouth while shouting. I tried to push her hand away. Only then did someone intervene and stop it,” claimed Safalta.