Alarmed at the fears expressed by the Christian community in Mandla and indeed the rest of Jabalpur division, and the report of a fact-finding team which toured the Narmada valley areas in the district on the eve of the so-called Kumbh, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Madhya Pradesh petitioned the high court at Jabalpur even as the All India Christian Council approached the union government and the political spectrum in New Delhi and Bhopal to prevent the outbreak of violence against Christians. Faced with these developments, the state government withdrew its enthusiastic support for the Sangh’s plan and the police were eventually directed to ensure that there were no conversions of Christian tribals to Hinduism. These were obviously reluctant actions, as there was no effort to prevent the hate speech that dominated the Kumbh, emanating from a host of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram leaders.