As the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is nearing its 60 years anniversary, VHP general secretary Milind Parande on Tuesday said that the organisation has launched a large-scale membership enrolment campaign and is striving aggressively to ensure the enactment of anti-conversion laws at the national level.
Parande also boasted that the VHP has succeeded in ensuring laws against religious conversion in states like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh Jharkhand, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and Gujarat.
The VHP leader also pointed out that the anti-conversion law needs to be enacted in Tamil Nadu as well which is facing a wider threat of illegal Christian conversion drives.
“It is our wish that a similar law be passed in Tamil Nadu, where there is a high risk of illegal Christian conversion activity.” And that is why we will take this issue up,” Parande told the media.
Parande stated that the VHP is conducting awareness campaigns over the challenges faced by the Hindus such as religious conversions, cow slaughter, and the declining Hindu population in various areas.
“The VHP will reach the Hindu society about these challenges.” VHP currently runs 5,700 service projects in health, education, women empowerment, and skill development, and hopes to start service projects in every district in the country within the next two years,” he said.
As a part of its nationwide campaign ‘Hitchintak Abhiyan’ which aims to Hindus across the country, especially in the villages, VHP will be reaching out to over 2,000 villages and cities in Tamil Nadu.
“The organisation aims to reach out to 2,000 villages and cities in Tamil Nadu, with the goal of recruiting 2 lakh new members as part of the nation’s one crore membership drive, the Hitchintak Abhiyan, which began on November 6. During the next two weeks, the VHP will connect with over one crore Hindus by visiting 1.5 lakh villages across the country,” he said.
Apart from anti-conversion laws, the VHP leader also emphasized that Hindu temples should be freed from government control, citing allegations that the southern state governments used temple property and funds for non-Hindu purposes. This was seen in Srisailam and Tirupati, where those who did not believe in Hindu deities were given jobs and temple lands. “Conversion activities are taking place on temple grounds,” Parande asserted.
The VHP general secretary also welcomed the Karnataka government’s decision to hand over temple management to Hindus, he said appropriate laws should be drafted, incorporating even the dispute mechanism in temple management as a module to be adopted.
Notably, Parande expressed his displeasure over the extension of reservation benefits to members of the SC ST who had converted to Christianity or Islam and advocated for strict adherence to the Pune Pact of 1932, which allowed benefits to be extended only to Hindu Scheduled Castes.
He suggested that those who convert to another religion and leave Hinduism should not be granted any sort of caste benefits. The same should be applicable to Tribals who somehow convert or quit Hindu ways of worship and traditions.
In response to the ban on RSS route marches in Tamil Nadu, he stated that “the MK Stalin-led state government’s restriction of RSS rallies is nothing more than Muslim appeasement.” The DMK government should reconsider its stance.”
On the progress of the Shri Ram Temple construction in Ayodhya, Parande stated that construction on the Sri Ram temple would be completed by December 2023, and the idol of Ram Lalla would be installed in the temple’s sanctum sanctorum in January 2024.
