Forget the AK-47 rifles of militant groups. It is now the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP’s) trishuls that are emerging as the weapons of contention in the northeast.VHP international general secretary Praveen Togadia’s two visits to the region in recent weeks, and his announcement that 100,000 Assamese youth would be given trishuls in a sort of initiation rite, has evoked controversy. Arch-rivals otherwise, the ruling Congress and the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) have been equally sharp in criticising Togadia.The VHP has been active for decades now, especially in Assam and Tripura, with the Church remaining its focus of attention. But with the increase in the Muslim population thanks to the influx from Bangladesh, the VHP now has another front to fight on.‘‘The northeast,’’ says Arabinda Bhattacharjee, a VHP veteran in the region for three decades, ‘‘is facing two major dangers, the Muslim migrants from Bangladesh and the increased conversion by the Church. But in Assam alone we have been able to reconvert over 3,600 persons to Hinduism.’’ It is ironical that the Hindu body that adopted the methods of the Christians it opposes. The Church ‘‘enters’’ a remote place with a school and some health facilities, the VHP too has adopted a similar strategy. That is why it has set up schools in the farflung areas of, for instance, Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya, the three states with the highest concentration of Christians in the country.Ways of Wooing The VHP tries various steps to make its presence felt in the northeast:Assam: Aims to distribute 100,000 trishuls, focus on Bangladeshi infiltration, co-opt Vaishnob sects.Nagaland: Countering missionary influence on Liangmei, Rongmei and Zemi tribal communitiesMizoram: Works through Chakma and Reang tribalsTripura: Plans a school in every village, runs hostels.Sensing the tribal groups are a key target, the VHP uses frontal organisations like the Vanvasi Kalyan Samiti and the Adim Jati Sewa Sangha to provide educational facilities to tribal students and thereby win recruits. In regard to Bangladeshi Muslims in Assam, Togadia has tapped into local sentiment with his trishul project. The campaign to distribute 100,000 trishuls will be completed on November 24, birth anniversary of Lachit Barphukan, the 18th century Ahom general who thwarted the final Mughal attempt to annex Assam. In keeping with its propagation of a militant Hinduism, the Parishad talks of setting up one Bajrang unit in every block.Even so, despite Togadia’s rhetoric — ‘‘Dump secularism into the Brahmaputra,’’ he said at a meeting in Guwahati on June 8 — things are not going swimmingly for the VHP. The Congress government in Assam says it will not allow trishul diksha programme to go ahead. AASU and the Asom Gana Parishad accuse the VHP of giving a religious colour to a historical problem. ‘‘Infiltrators from Bangladesh are infiltrators,’’ argues AASU president Prabin Boro, ‘‘whether they are Muslims or Hindus. Togadia should stop coming to Assam to spread his politics of hatred.’’ The cancer surgeon from Gujarat still has some convincing to do.
