NEW DELHI, NOV 11: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Thursday urged the Union government to send back foreign missionaries working in India.Responding to Pope John Paul II's reported statement that the next century should be used to evangelise Asia, VHP senior vice-president Acharya Giriraj Kishore asserted that his organisation had accepted this challenge. ``India has been home to many religions, but whenever our culture has been threatened, we have risen to the occasion,'' he said.The VHP leader also rejected archbishop Alan de Lastic's statement which suggested that the Pope's call had been misinterpreted. ``Let the Pope himself retract the statement,'' he said.He also informed mediapersons that the VHP would be writing to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government to send back foreign missionaries. Explaining the reasons behind this demand, he referred to then Union Minister of State for Home Md. Maqbool Dal's reply in Parliament to a starred question on December 10, 1996. ``He admitted that some terrorist groups working in the north-east were receiving financial assistance from various international Christian organisations. He also did not rule out the fact these funds may have been used to buy arms from abroad,'' the Acharya pointed out.VHP president Vishnu Hari Dalmia, while speaking to reporters on Thursday afternoon, felt that the Pope's statement had given the green signal to his followers to intensify their task of converting Hindus to their faith.``We are disappointed with his remarks. We will, however, continue with our job of reconverting people in a democratic fashion,'' he said.
