ICC Note
The recent Hindu festival in Gujarat was merely a prelude to Hindu extremists plans to mobilize the entire country to turn against Christians and re-convert them to Hinduism.
Christian Today India (02/17/06) A series of conclaves or meetings scheduled to be conducted by various right-wing Hindu organizations are beginning to worry Christian advocacy groups and human rights watchdogs in India .
Besides the Shabri Kumbh Mela in Dangs, Gujarat , that drew at least half a million Hindu pilgrims during February 11-13, meetings are also being planned in Orissa where communal tension runs high.
The conclaves, as reported by BosNewsLife, will draw thousands of Hindu activists from neighboring states of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Sikkim and will deliberate on conversions by missionaries.
According to VHP Orissa state secretary, Gouri Prasad Rath, one such conclave will be held in Puri, Orissas popular Hindu pilgrimage city. Similar meetings will be held in other states, he confirmed.
Such conclaves, Christian groups claim, will incite sectarian violence and will lead to persecution of minority communities.
In Orissa, one of the few states where anti-conversion law exists, a Christians house was burnt down by a mob of angry Hindu villagers in Matiapada village on January 17.
Elsewhere, on Janaury 14, Hindu extremists opposed the construction of childrens home and school in the village of Tikri in Uttaranchal and threatened the workers with dire consequences.
Human rights group, Voice of the Martyrs (VOMC), suspects that such incidents are linked to the anti-Christian campaign launched nationwide by Hindu extremist outfits.
