VHP to seek white paper on Christian missionaries’ role

NEW DELHI, JAN 1: Undeterred by the flak received by it over the incidents in Gujarat, the VHP has drawn an elaborate three-year plan to ...

NEW DELHI, JAN 1: Undeterred by the flak received by it over the incidents in Gujarat, the VHP has drawn an elaborate three-year plan to counter the activities of the Christian missionaries and to encourage reconversion. The plan’s outlines have already been worked out by the senior VHP leaders, and is likely to be finalised in the two-day “dharam sansad” which begins in Ahmedabad on February 5.

Irked by what it perceives as “unfair criticism” of its role in the affairs in Gujarat, the VHP today also demanded that the Centre issue a white-paper on the activities of Christian missionaries across the country in the last 10 years. It also sent a memorandum to President K R Narayanan yesterday giving details about the incidents in the strife-torn state to prove that it was not responsible for them. “We also plan to meet Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Home Minister L K Advani with the facts,” pointed out VHP media-centre chief Lokesh Pratap Singh.

Quoting reports published in local newspapersand the FIR registered at various places in Gujarat, Singh alleged that the attacks were, in fact, planned by Christian missionaries. “It began with an attack on a small temple at Dangs, in which a prominent sant’ was critically wounded,” he said, adding, “We are being unnecessarily maligned.”

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The VHP, he said at the same time, had identified 200 sensitive districts all over the country for the reconversions. “These are located mostly in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and the North-East,” Singh pointed out. “We have also identified 50,000 villages in these districts for launching a public awareness campaign against the activities of the Christian missionaries,” he said, adding, “We have already established contacts with 10,000 villages.” There will be one “shakti-kendra” (power-centre) for every 25 villages. “These centres will work as the nodal point for regulating the reconversion work in these districts,” he said.

Realizing theimportance of this task, the VHP has earmarked a corpus of Rs 5 crore for it. “About a thousand youth, mostly hailing from the tribal-dominated areas, will be trained for the job of propagating the Hindu religion in these districts,” he pointed out.