In a build-up to the elections, BJP Rajya Sabha member Dilip Singh Judeo held a ‘‘de-conversion’’ camp for 250 Christian families in Chattisgarh today.
During his recent trip to the state, party president Venkaiah Naidu had announced that the BJP will make conversions a poll issue here, besides hindutva. Almost translating his words into action, Judeo organised the Vishal Hindu Sagum at Khallari village, nearly 80 km from Raipur, today in the presence of a dozen sadhus.
‘‘Elections are very near. What has happened in Chhattisgarh in the past two years is known to all. Unless, the Hindus unite and fight the churches’ gameplan to covert poor Adivasis and Dalits, the onslaught will continue,’’ Judeo said on his arrival at Mahasamund town.
‘‘This year, I was not able to meet my target of two lakh de-conversions. But next year, I will make up by bringing three lakh persons into the fold of Hinduism,’’ Judeo said. He claimed that his ‘‘ghar-bapsi abhiyan’’ was purely ‘‘personal’’, as he attaches more importance to this mission than even building the Ram temple at Ayodhya.
‘‘A Hindu can build a temple but a temple can’t make a Hindu. Had de- conversions been organized by our forefathers, there would have been no Pakistan, Bangladesh or Kashmir today,’’ he reasoned.
Judeo, who had led a de-conversion movement in undivided Madhya Pradesh for over a decade, drove in an open jeep, along with senior BJP leader Brij Mohan Aggarwal, to Mahasamund. They headed for Khallari Devi temple, where the sadhus had gathered to oversee the conversion ceremony.
‘‘Today’s fuction holds immense significance for the party in the context of BJP’s decision to take the Gujarat message to states which are going for Assembly polls next year,’’ Aggarwal said.
Amid cheers and cries of Jai Shri Ram, about 250 Dalit and Adivasi families, mostly from villages bordering Orrissa, were ‘‘re-adopted’’ into the fold of Hinduism. Judeo himself sat on a wooden platform to wash the feet of each person re-converting to Hinduism.
Thirty-five-year-old Lal Sai Tandi, who converted to Hinduism along with his wife and three children, said: ‘‘It is a great experience and a happy moment for me.’’ Tandi said his father had converted to Christianty about four decades ago, but the family stopped going to the church some years back.
Nearly 100 families from Batari
village alone attended the ceremony. Thakur Vijay Singh, convenor of the
Dharma Rasksha Samiti, a RSS outfit, said: ‘‘Most of the families, who
rejoined their religion, have come voluntarily.’’