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VHP launches 'anti-conversion squads' in Kerala

The Kerala unit of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has launched "anti-conversion squads" to spread awareness against religious conversions and "completely" end the same in a time-bound manner.

The VHP has imparted special training to 32 dedicated youngsters for the purpose in Thrissur and despatched them to select areas of the state, VHP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan told UNI today.

The VHP, which is at present concentrating its anti-conversion activities among the plantation labourers in Idukki district, would chalk out an action plan to spread its activities, at a meeting of the Hindu Aikya Vedi, a united forum of Hindu organisations, scheduled to be held in Thiruvanthapuram tomorrow, he said.

Rajasekharan, however, said the squads "would not force anybody to come back to Hinduism, but only try and persuade them to return to their old faith".

An expert team would be appointed by the organisation shortly to identify the areas, where evangelist missionaries were concentrating their activities, he added.

A team of sanyasins, led by Swami Raghavananda of the Sankarankovil Anjaneya Mutt of Tamil Nadu, had already started a door-to-door campaign in Idukki, he said and claimed that since the launch of its campaign recently, about 200 people had been converted back to their old faith.

Rajasekharan said as per the interim plan, several awareness campaigns and conventions would be organised and thousands of copies of literature to discourage people from embracing other faiths were being distributed in the state.

He said training for another batch of 100 "Hindu missionaries" would start soon.

He alleged that largescale conversions had been going on in the plantation areas of Idukki with the estate owners' support. Of the 200,000 plantation workers, 15 per cent had embraced Christianity during the last 15 years, he said.

Claiming that foreign agencies were pumping in millions of ruppees into Kerala for the activities of the Christian missionaries, he said the VHP would approach the plantation owners for financial assistance to curtail religious conversions in these areas.

Holding that conversion with ''full will and knowledge'' was never opposed by anybody, Hindu Aikya Vedi general secretary G Sisupalan argued that any attempt to force conversion or influence it with ''lucrative offers'' was against the fundamental rights of a citizen.

UNI

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