Religious Conversions: Embarrassment or Gain for BJP?
December 13, 2014
The issue of forcible conversions is in eye of a storm again following the conversion of 300 Muslims to Hinduism in Agra by militant Hindu groups Bajrang Dal and Dharma Jagaran Manch earlier this week.
Conversions Vs Re-conversions
The Hindutva brigade now claims that it has been a case of ‘re-conversion’ after the Agra episode created a ruckus both in Parliament and outside it.
Unruffled, these outfits even plan more such conversions even as the Agra episode has sparked a row with the Muslim groups claiming that those (re)converted there were actually offered BPL (Below Poverty Line) and ration cards.
Vajpayee had Tactfully Handled the Conversion Issue
On 11 January 1999, the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had called for a national debate on the issue of religious conversions.
He was at that time on a visit to the troubled Dangs district of Gujarat following reports of Hindu-Christian clashes over the issue of forced conversions in the predominantly tribal district.
By calling for a debate, Vajpayee deftly handled the issue in the wake of the mounting pressure on him from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh backed Hindu outfits – the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal, as well as another Sangh outfit, the Vansvasi Kalayan Ashram that too was allegedly involved in such conversions in Dangs.
He had then turned down the Opposition demands of banning the activities of the VHP and the Dal, and put the onus on the collectors and superintendents of police for the protection of life and property of all, and that included the minorities.
Conversions Vs Home Coming
The Hindutva forces accuse leaders of other religions of forcibly converting Hindus through coercion or by luring them with money. They claim they indulge in getting these converted people to reconvert to Hinduism and call this process as ‘ Ghar Vapasi (home coming)’.
Reports suggest that the RSS and its affiliates have been involved in such re-conversions for the last 50 years at least.
The RSS and its Concept of Hindutva
If one carefully analyses the speech of the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s Gurupurnima day speech in July last year, then the RSS’s interpretation of Hindutva and Hindu Rashtra seems interspersed with India’s pluralistic society and its idea of unity in diversity .
This perhaps explains the proclamation of BJP leader and Union minister Venkaiah Naidu in Parliament during the heated debate on the Agra conversion issue that he was “proud” of his RSS background.
Yet, the inherent flaw in the approach, whether by default or design, is the RSS’s definition of a Hindu. Bhagwat has already courted enough controversy by stating that except for the Jews and the Parsis, “everybody’s ancestors in India were Hindus”.
Whether such a definition of Hindu trespasses the domain of fundamental right to propagate one’s religion is a matter of debate. But doesn’t such a statement by any leader inspire awe in a multi-ethnic-multi-religious nation?
The trouble starts when the so-called hardliners of the extended Sangh Parivar gleefully lap such words for political gains. A recent case in point is the BJP Member of Parliament Yogi Adityanath who announced his plans to carry out an Agra-like (re)conversion ceremony in Aligarh on the Christmas day. His action has a motif. Consider his remarks that he made in September this year that “… where they are more than 35%, there is no place for non-Muslims”.
Was he suggesting conversion then?
Modi Government at the Receiving End
It is no fluke that the issue of conversions surfaces more during the BJP regimes. Ever after the Babri mosque demolition, communalism has proved to be the BJP’s Achilles’ heel time and again. The Agra episode now provides the Opposition an opportunity to drag Prime Minister Narendra Modi into the controversy. In Parliament, the Opposition did seek to trap Modi by demanding his intervention on the issue. It was a shrewd political ploy to target the PM, given the fact that even Modi had been an RSS Pracharak and a strong proponent of Hindu nationalism.
Will Modi intervene on the issue? After all, Vajpayee did instruct him to perform his “Raj Dharma” as the then Chief Minister of Gujarat when communal violence had broken out there!
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