Hindu nationalists declare conversion a ‘heinous crime’, wants missionaries to leave

A recent meeting of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) at Punjab adopted a resolution demanding religious conversion to be treated as a "heinous crime."

An offshoot of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the VHP has been extremely radical in nature and has perpetrated several attacks against the Christians and other minority groups.

VHP passed the resolution at its executive council meeting at Jai Narain Vidya Mandir School under the chairmanship of its international president Ashok Singhal.

The weeklong closed–door meeting, called for intensification of 'a cultural liberation struggle' of Hindus for supremacy of the world and ban of Christian missionaries in India.

VHP leader Mohan Singh told IANS the resolution stated that there were “5,000 foreign priests into religious conversion in India” and they stayed on tourist and business visas. “They should be asked to leave the country,” he said.

Also earlier, when asked if the VHP meet was to intensify its election campaign by Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani, Ashok Singhal said: “We have nothing to do with elections.”

The VHP that has its wing in the UK, the US and a few other countries, claims India is a 'Hindu' nation and Islam and Christianity, was brought by foreign invaders who imposed and coerced it upon millions of Hindus.

While striving to convert Christians, tribal peoples (native Hindus) and Muslims to Hinduism, the VHP states that all Muslims and Christians were Hindus in the first place, and that all citizens of ‘Bharat’ are naturally Hindus.

From recently, the VHP members have been vigorously engaged in several programs to reconvert Hindus who had converted to Christianity. Narendra Maharaj, chief of the Ramanandcharya Peeth of Nanij in the Konkan, claimed to have converted over 1700 Christians back to Hinduism in Borivili, this year.

VHP and its other affiliated Hindu organisations have been accused of several riots in the country, the most recent accusation being their involvement in the 2007 Orissa Christmas Violence.