The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (Universal Hindu Council), founded in 1964 with the aim to organise, consolidate, and protect Hindu society, includes several right-wing Hindu nationalist organisations in its fold. They have been pressing demands to check missionaries and Islamic outfits engaged in “religious conversions”.
A day after two men were arrested for running a “mass religious conversion” racket in Uttar Pradesh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded federal regulations against such acts.
In a video message, VHP General Secretary Surendra Jain said, “It is now clear how disgusting and anti-national their conspiracy is. Earlier they used to target vulnerable people, but they crossed all limits when they targeted deaf children. Some of these children have also disappeared. This suggests that they can be brainwashed into terrorism”.
Jain made these remarks in the wake of the arrest of two men who had allegedly converted at least “1,000 non-Muslims to Islam by marrying them to Muslim men”. The Uttar Pradesh Additional Director General of Police Prashant Kumar claimed the outfit “Islamic Dawah Centre' under which the duo operated had access to funds from Pakistan's spy agency ISI and other foreign organisations.
Hindu groups have rebuked what they call “Love Jihad” – a practice of converting non-Muslim women to Islam after they marry Muslim men. The row has been grabbing…
