Maharashtra Bans VHP's Nawapur Program
Togadia was to be chief guest at the program. Yogesh Naik, Mid-Day. 23rd December 2003.
The state government yesterday banned the December 24 'Ghar Wapasi' program organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) at Nawapur in the tribal district of Nandurbar to recovert 400 tribal Christians to Hinduism.
VHP leader Dr. Praveen Togadia was to be chief guest at the program.
Nawapur, which is in a district adjoining Gujarat, has 70,000 Christian residents, and 62 percent of its population is tribal.
A senior police officer said the VHP recently distributed a lot of pamphlets in the district. "About five years ago, the VHP had sitribued pamphlets in the Dangs district of Gujarat. The VHP then went on a rampage and burnt a few churches. We don't want trouble in Maharashtra," the official said.
The district collector of Nandurbar, Sanjay Khandare, said, "We had apprehensions of trouble. The aim seems to be to create mischief. This would lead to a law and order problem in Nandurbar."
Khandare added the government had already invoked prohibitory orders that banned the assembly of more than four persons in a place and banned Togadia from entering Nawapur.
The district administration has summoned additional forces for assistance and also requisitioned the State Reserve Police Force.
The VHP allegedly distributed pamphlets in Nandurbar saying Christians had damaged Hindu temples and were detroying the culture of Ram. The VHP's contention was that Christian missionaries had gone on a rampage in the tribal districts of Maharashtra and Gujarat and converted tribals to Christianity.
The State Minorities Commission was the first to raise the issue with the state government. Its vice-chairman, Abraham Mathai, said, "Why did the government not take suo moto action against VHP when they had been distributing pamphlets for days? The VHP applied for permission only on Saturday."
Though Togadia was unavaiable for comment, the Maharashtra and Goa chief of the VHP, Ashok Chowgule said, "So what's new, the government keeps banning our programs."
VHP To Defy Maharashtra Ban
TNN, Times of India, Bombay, 24th December 2003.
Bombay: The VHP has decided to go ahead with its reconversion rally at Nawapur in the tribal district of Nandurbar on Wednesday despite a ban by the Maharashtra government.
On Monday, the state government had invoked prohibitory orders in Nawapur banning assembly of more than four persons. It also banned VHP leader Pravin Togadia—the chief guest at the rally—from entering Nawapur.
VHP state convenor Shankar Gaikar said that Togadia and a large contingent of Hindutva activists would attend the rally on Wednesday on schedule.
He further said that it was not a reconversion rally as was touted by the minority community but a "jagran sabha for which they did not really need the state government's permission."
The district administration, meanwhile, has summoned additional forces for assistance and also requisitioned the State Reserve Plice Force personnel to ensure that no law and order problem arises in Nawapur on Wednesday.
According to the local police officials, the guard has been raised after 20 Christians were attacked by alleged Bajrang Dal activists in Bhendgwahn village in Nasik district on Monday night when they were having Christmas prayers.
In fact, the State Minorities Commission had expressed concern over the timing of the rally on Christmas eve to the government a fortnight ago.
'500 Tribals Re-Converted,' Claims VHP
Times News Network. Times of India, Bombay & Surat, 26th December 2003.
The VHP on Thursday claimed that around 500 tribals, including a local pastor in Navapur town of Nadurbar district of Maharashtra, were converted to Hinduism at a VHP-sponsored public meeting in Lalmati town in Gujarat on Wednesday.
However, government officials present at the spot said they say only one pastor with about a dozen people at the venue of the programme. The state intelligence bureau in Gandhnagar refused to confirm the news reports emanating from Bombay.
The pastor, Motu Nurawalvi of Silo Delsya church of Sonare village near Navapur, and others from the church were converted after the VHP sammelan which was addressed by the party's international general secretary Pravin Togadia, its Maharashtra unit president Vyankatesh Abdev said in Bombay. Of the 500 people converted, 200 were women, he added.
The Gujarat chief of the All India Christian Council, Samson Christian rejected the claims and said, "We will believe this only if the VHP gives us a list of those who they claim have become Hindus."
The sammelan was shifted to Lalmati on the Gujarat-Maharashtra border after the Maharashtra government denied permission to the VHP to hold the sammelan. The general secretary of the Gujarat unit of the VHP, Jaideep Patel, said that the pastor had stated that he was 'forcibly' converted by some missionaries some years back and would now work to bring more Christian tribals back into the Hindu fold.
Mr. Patel said the programme in Lalmati was part of the VHP's 'ghar vapsi' programme, which was going on in many trbal belts in the country where the Christian missionaries were also active. He said it was a "continuous process" and there was no formal process for the re-conversion.
'Tribals Being Forced To Give Up Christianity'
Times News Network. Times of India, Bombay, 31st December 2003.
A clutch of tribal families in Tilonda village in Thane district, who were recently attacked at a Christian prayer meet, are being told by the village sarpanch and local police that they will be allowed to return home only if the renounce their Christian faith, according to the vice chairperson of the state minorities commission Abraham Mathai.
Violence broke out in the village housing 41 tribal families near the Gujarat border when a group from the same village attacked the houses of the Christian families.
Nearl 50 % of the villagers had embraced Christianity and local Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activists were trying to force them to renounce it, Mr. Mathai alleged.
The tribals who were attacked were rendered homeless and took refuge in other villages. Mr. Mathai said the tribals were scared to return home and the police were doing little to erase their fears.
Mr. Mathai said he met home minister R.R. Patil on Monday to apprise him of the tense situation prevailing in the hamlet. He said the issue was larger, because a lot of tribals were deep in debt and addicted to alcohol and village leaders did not want them becoming independent. Most of the 18 families who had taken up Christianity had changed their lifestyles, he said.
One tribal, a former alcoholic, told TNN that the sarpanch and police are asking people like him to state on Wednesday their willingness to renounce Christianity.