VHP lashes out at Baptist Missions

AGARTALA, March 12: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has lashed out at the Baptist Missions for aiding and abetting terrorism in Northeast India. The international working president of the VHP, Ashok Singhal at a press conference here on Thursday, said the Baptist missions are, if not directly, but indirectly responsible for fomenting militancy in the region. He said lakhs of rupees are pouring into India from foreign countries for the Christian organisations, and observed that a large amount of these funds were being diverted for arms procurement for the militants. "However, Punjab has proved that terrorism in the home of religion is not going to succeed. In Northeast also, the sinister design is bound to fall," felt the VHP chief. Singhal, who has come here to attend a Sanatan Dharma Sammelan on Thursday being participated by 42 organisation, however, allayed apprehension that large-scale conversion by the Christian organisations would affect the Hindu society. In spite of the conversion drive by the Baptist Missions, thousands of tribals in many parts of the country are coming back to their own old religion, he claimed. Spelling out the strategy for Northeast, Singhal said the VHP has embarked on a holistic approach to counter the threat of militant organisations backed by Christian missionaries. While Dharma Suraksha Samities will be formed at the village-level with about 10 to 15 volunteers, reconversion to Hinduism will also be organised simultaneously in Northeast. He also indicated that for reconversion of the people already converted to Christianity, the VHP has a plan to revive the indigenous faiths of the region. The VHP leader lauded the efforts of organisations like Seng Khasi in Meghalaya and other bodies in the northeastern states, and added that these NGOs have been successful in bring the converted tribals into their original faiths. In Tripura, the Jamatia Hoda is getting all out support from the VHP to counter the Baptist Mission-aided National Liberation Front of Twipra militants who allegedly indulge in forcible proselytisation of the tribal people in the State. Singhal also maintained that the recent killings of Catholic priests in Tripura and Manipur by the Baptist militants in the region might have also been a fallout of conversion among the different Christians denominations.