Preparations for conversion event kept under wraps

A day after the Aligarh administration banned their religious conversion programme on December 25, Hindutva groups leading the campaign seem to have rethought their strategy.

The venue of the Ghar vapsi programme may be shifted at the last minute to places such as Hathras, Eta and Bulandshahr, and the ban may be legally challenged too.

The Dharam Jagaran Samiti, an Agra-based RSS affiliate, had last week announced the “biggest ever” religious conversion of about 4,000 Christians and Muslims in Aligarh. Following the ban, most of the office-bearers of the samiti, including its area chief Rajeshwar Singh, have gone underground and the preparations have been kept under wraps. Organising the programme has become a matter of prestige and a rallying point for Hindutva groups which have come together and dared the local administration to stop it. Office-bearers of the Bajrang Dal, Hindu Yuva Vahini, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and Dharam Jagaran Samiti met here on Sunday.

A new set of office-bearers have been announced as the existing names are on the intelligence radar.

The Hindutva outfit is ready with hundreds of affidavits which will be signed by people converting to Hinduism. The volunteers of DJS told The Hindu : “As a precautionary measure, we are ready with affidavits stating that the person is converting to Hinduism out of his/her own will and no inducement of any kind has been offered.” The final decision about the venue and further details are likely to be finalised in a week.

Amid the controversy, nobody has any idea who will be converted. Even the office-bearers of the DJS are tight-lipped about the identity of the people who will come into the Hindu fold.

According to Abhiram Goyal , convenor DJS, Aligarh, the volunteers are visiting villages on the outskirts of Aligarh, Agra, Bulandshahr which have minority Christian and Muslim population. “We will have some idea how many people have signed up for our Ghar vapsi programme in a week. By December 22, we will have the list of people and you can talk to them and find out for yourself that we are not forcing anybody,” Mr. Goyal maintained.