India: VHP picks church-attack sites for Delhi ghar wapsi campaign

The Indian Express

VHP picks church-attack sites for Delhi ghar wapsi campaign

New Delhi | Published on:March 29, 2015 2:46 am

By Pavan Burugula

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) organised a shoba yatra in Delhi on the occasion of Ram Navami and sent a clear signal that it would play a proactive role in the capital, where the BJP was routed by the AAP in the recent elections.

Taking a dig at the AAP, Praveen Togadia, international working president of VHP, said, “We won’t let any anti-Hindu or pro-Muslim party rule Delhi. In the coming days, Hindu warriors will overthrow such governments and bring Ramrajya.”

The VHP is also planning a ghar wapsi reconversion campaign in Delhi. VHP leaders claimed that this programme will begin from Rangpuri Pahadi and Dilshad Garden area.

A church in Dilshad Garden area was ransacked a few months ago and the church in Vasant Kunj, which was vandalised recently, is not too far away from the Rangpuri Pahadi.

“There is no relation between our plans and these incidents. Police have already investigated the incidents and have concluded that those were cases of burglary. We don’t promote or support any type of violence. The problem is that the media always portray us in a bad light,” Anil Kumar, spokesperson of Delhi’s VHP unit, said.

The VHP also plans to hold ground-level meetings in areas of Rangpuri Pahadi and Dilshad Garden. Representatives of the VHP will approach those had been converted in the past and try to convince them to return to Hinduism. The organisation claimed that it had done enough ground-level study to undertake ghar wapsi in Delhi.

“According to our study, about 70 Hindus are converted each day in Delhi and, in the last one year, more than 100 churches have been built. They have built churches in Hindu-dominated areas and in areas where you don’t find even a single Christian. They are doing it with malicious intent to convert people from the locality,” Kumar alleged. The VHP leaders are identifying 200 volunteers to carry out the programme.

The VHP will also organise skill development workshops for women and use this as a platform to raise “awareness” about “love jihad” and its consequences.

“Men of other communities are trapping Hindu girls and marrying them. Within three or four years, they betray these girls,” Ram Krishna Shrivastava, VHP’s Delhi unit chief, said.

Shrivastava claimed that VHP receives complaints from hundreds of parents daily, who don’t approach police fearing social stigma. “Is helping such parents a crime,” he asked. The VHP is also planning to launch a 24X7 hotline where people can report about “love jihad”, conversions and “insult to cows”.

(The reporter is a student of Exims)