GUWAHATI: At a time when religious conversion has emerged as one of the controversial topics, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) national general secretary, Y Raghavulu, has once again stirred the hornet’s nest with his claim that every year over eight lakh Hindus are being converted to other religions.
On the sidelines of a function organized to felicitate veteran VHP leader Mohanlal Agarwal here on Sunday, Raghavulu said eight lakh Hindus were converted to either Christianity or Islam.
VHP international president G Raghava Reddy was also present there, but he refused to speak to the media.
Religious conversion of Hindus is taking place in great numbers and this is a threat to India’s integrity, Raghavulu alleged.
The VHP leader has also alleged that Christians and Muslims are encouraging religious conversions in the country as one of the five strategies to dominate India.
Encouraging infiltration, grabbing the land of Hindus and creating divisions among Indian communities are some of their other techniques to dominate the country.
“We all know very well about the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir and the burning of Bodo villages by Bangladeshis in Assam recently,” Raghavulu alleged.
Raghavulu also claimed that in Assam religious conversions and infiltration from neighbouring Bangladesh were taking place at an alarming pace.
Like many other parts of the country, in Assam, too, many districts have seen a significant rise in Muslim population, while the number of Hindus is declining. “This is indeed a threat to the Hindu samaj. It is high time we wake up to the threat from religious conversion,” the VHP leader said.
“Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh were once part of Akhand Bharat. Today, these have become separate countries. We cannot allow further disintegration of our country,” he added.
Issues of religious conversion had become a controversial topic in the country last year, especially after constituents of the Sangh Parivar spearheaded the Ghar Wapsi initiative for reconversion of non-Hindus into Hinduism.
Naresh Mitra
Times of India
