INTERVIEW: VISHNU HARI DALMIA
"If the conflict turns political,
it's okay with us"
The Sangh Parivar's new agenda is a fight against
"conversions". Senior Correspondent Rohit
Pariharspoke to VHP's international president, V H Dalmia at a party
meet in Jaipur:
Why was there violence against Christian
missionaries in Gujarat?
It is a false allegation. Actually we were attacked and then they blamed us.
But Christians in India are not known to be
aggressive. Why would they suddenly act like this? You know the reason well.
You mean, it's because Sonia Gandhi is becoming
powerful? Yes. They (Christians) think that with her rise, they will also have the best of
times and get away with anything.
So Christians vs Hindus is now a political issue?
Yes. We do not want to make it so, but we won't mind if it becomes one.
Our Constitution permits freedom to practise any
religion. Aren't you then questioning the Constitution?
No. We are not questioning the Constitution. We oppose forcible conversions.
HINDUTVA'S FOOT SOLDIERS
Rakshit Pandya cannot
forget the day when he, with 30 of his Bajrang Dal compatriots, descended on a
Christian-run kindergarten school in a western Ahmedabad slum last year. They
"politely" told the lone priest and a nun "to go away", but they
refused. So Pandya, 22, a 12th standard dropout and his friends "flexed their
muscles". The VHP runs the "liberated" school today. As Pandya narrates
this story of threats and violence, his otherwise stony face breaks into a sparkle. He is
one of Hindutva's stormtroopers, fired by an ideology of Hindu greatness, blind to law and
reason. He earns no more than Rs 800 as a stipend. Doesn't he want to go to college?
"I am rendering a greater service to Hindu society," he says with authority and
pride. But semi-educated youth are not the only foot soldiers, the faceless mobs who
attack Christians in Gujarat.
Jayanti Patel, 37, VHP
member and father of two, is a docile-looking video-store owner from Rajkot. But scratch
his beliefs and his real self comes tumbling out in the form of a tirade against
Christians. His defining moment: tearing Bibles in Rajkot this year. The numbers of the
Pandyas and Patels are yet small, but obviously enough to damage a state's social fabric.
The Sangh Parivar's new agenda is a fight against
"conversions". Senior Correspondent Rohit
Parihar spoke to VHP's international president, V H Dalmia at a party
meet in Jaipur: 
Rakshit Pandya cannot
forget the day when he, with 30 of his Bajrang Dal compatriots, descended on a
Christian-run kindergarten school in a western Ahmedabad slum last year. They
"politely" told the lone priest and a nun "to go away", but they
refused. So Pandya, 22, a 12th standard dropout and his friends "flexed their
muscles". The VHP runs the "liberated" school today. As Pandya narrates
this story of threats and violence, his otherwise stony face breaks into a sparkle. He is
one of Hindutva's stormtroopers, fired by an ideology of Hindu greatness, blind to law and
reason. He earns no more than Rs 800 as a stipend. Doesn't he want to go to college?
"I am rendering a greater service to Hindu society," he says with authority and
pride. But semi-educated youth are not the only foot soldiers, the faceless mobs who
attack Christians in Gujarat.
