The shelving of Aligarh Christmas conversions has left Dharm Jagran Samiti leader Rajeshwar Singh downcast, but it has not sapped his zeal to pursue his mission.
Singh, the Judeo of Uttar Pradesh, claims he has been involved in the 'ghar wapsi (homecoming)' of three lakh people since 1996. He is confident that a fresh date would be fixed for the Aligarh programme, in which around 5,000 Christians and Muslims were to be brought back to Hindu fold.
"Our fight is not with government or administration, but with Muslims and Christians. We don't want to create trouble for the administration," Singh, the Western UP in-charge of the Samiti, a wing of the Sangh, told dna when asked about the deferment of Aligarh programme.
The issue has rocked Parliament paralysing business in Rajya Sabha where the insurance bill, seeking to raise the FDI cap in the sector to 49 per cent, is on the agenda. As a united Opposition tried to corner the government on conversions insisting that prime minister Narendra Modi make a statement, RSS stepped in to stop Dharm Jagran Manch from going ahead with Aligarh conversions. And Modi advised his party MPs to focus on the development agenda.
Singh, 56, who has been a RSS pracharak for 36 years, claimed he had Sangh's support for conversions, but did not want to create obstacles for the government.
His ancestors had begun re-conversions in 1906. "We have done only ghar wapsi," he said, drawing a distinction between 'homecoming' of Hindus who adopted other religions, and conversions from one religion to another.
Singh began as a Tehsil pracharak in Khair in Aligarh district when RSS leader Krishna Gopal was zilla pracharak. He has re-converted people mainly in Aligarh, Mainpuri and Shahjanpur.
In 2006, when he was provincial head of the Samiti of Braj prant, the reconversion of around 3500 Christians in Badaun district was presided over by Dileep Singh Judeo, then a BJP Rajya Sabha member.
Justifying the programme, Singh said missionaries at Ingraham Church in Aligarh had been involved in converting dalit Hindus to Christianity.
With the Samiti's agenda coming in the way of the government's economic agenda, particularly with Parliament in session, Singh has been reined in. However, that has not stopped him from unleashing his ire against the minority communities.
Religious conversions have given ammunition to the Opposition, which is united on the issue, to accuse the government and Sangh-affiliated outfits of pursuing a "communal agenda". In its editorial on Thursday in party mouthpiece 'People's Democracy', CPM said: "The hidden behind the mask of all such developments is the furious unfolding of this Modi government's lethal cocktail selling grandiose illusions of prosperity through development while unleashing rabid communal polarisation".
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