Bharatiya Janata Party MP Bharat Singh on Saturday alleged that Christian missionaries were a threat to India’s unity and integrity, and accused the Congress of working on their directives, PTI reported.

“Christian missionaries control the Congress,” Singh, who represents Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia in the Lok Sabha, told reporters on Saturday. “Sonia Gandhi, the mother of Congress President Rahul Gandhi, works on the directions of these missionaries.”

Singh alleged that the north eastern states were under the influence of the missionaries and democracy there had weakened because of “conversion of people into Christianity”.

Singh had recently alleged that Christian missionaries had defaced the statues of Dr BR Ambedkar. Ambedkar’s statues were vandalised in Azamgarh, Meerut and Allahabad in March. Last week, two of his statues in Bihar’s Nawada and Sheikhpura districts were found destroyed. The incidents were triggered after the razing of Communist icon Vladimir Lenin’s statue in Tripura.