JOIN USHindutva leaders lend support to homecoming
Despite having declared beforehand that conversion was not on the agenda of the party’s executive committee meeting that began in Mirzapur on Saturday, the issue did enter discussion and the Hindutva leaders voiced their support to what they termed ‘ghar vapasi’ (homecoming).
Though the state BJP chief Luxmi Kant Bajpai and party’s UP in-charge Om Mathur washed their hands off the issue saying that the party had nothing to do with it, leaders like Ram Shankar Katheria and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, both ministers in the Union cabinet, said there was nothing wrong if someone “voluntarily” changed his or her faith.
Katheria advocated for a strong anti-conversion law and accused his opponents of trying to communalise the recent mass conversion in Agra. “Those who are opposing the Agra conversion do not want a strong law on the issue”, he claimed.
Muzaffarnagar riot accused BJP legislator Suresh Rana also supported conversion programmes by saffron outfits and termed the same as “ghar vapasi’. “What is wrong in someone wanting to come back home?” Rana asked.
The Hindutva leaders said they would lend wholehearted support to the saffron outfits in their efforts to encourage conversion.
“No one raises a finger when the missionaries hold mass conversion programs”, Rana said.
BJP MP from Gorakhpur Mahant Adityanath has declared that he will take part in the “mass conversion” programme at Aligarh on December 25 though it has been banned by the district administration.
Bajpai, however, said that the BJP had “nothing to do with the controversy”. “It may be personal agenda of some individuals...the party is in no way associated with it”, the BJP leader said.