VHP passes resolution against religious radicalism; seeks stringent anti-conversion law and UCC

PTI, Jan 1, 2023, 5:20 PM IST

Representative Image (Source: ANI)

Indore: The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) has passed a resolution against religious radicalism, which it said was responsible for terror attacks across the world, and demanded a stringent law to ban illegal conversions and implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), its functionary said.

This resolution was passed and demands were made during the three-day meeting of the VHP’s central board of trustees and the governing council that concluded here on Sunday. ”An important resolution on ‘Religious Dogmatism – Its Ill-effects and Solution’ was passed in the meeting,” VHP working president advocate Alok Kumar told reporters here.

”The resolution made it clear that the declarations by some traditions that ‘Only my religion is right, others have to accept and if they don’t, then I have the divine command to eliminate them’ are unacceptable to humanity. Those who insist on such heavenly commands to destroy have actually destroyed many ancient civilisations of the world,” he said.

The resolution passed during the meeting said, ”Unfortunately, despite the toxic experiences of many centuries, religious radicalism and dogmatism of the desert traditions remain a challenge for the whole world even today. These radicals are also responsible for the terrorist attacks happening here and there in the world every day…”

”The series of inhuman atrocities on non-Muslim women through ‘Love Jihad’ and also the Jihadi activism of the ”Sar tan se juda gang” (beheading gang) are the ghastly faces of this religious radicalism….,” a VHP statement said.

Kumar said a comprehensive policy has to be framed at the global level to deal with the toxic effects of religious dogmatism. ”This narrow-mindedness and exclusivism has to be neutralised at the intellectual, social and political levels. Violence, looting, rape and murders are used as weapons by a large section of Islam in the name of Jihad. Now this will not work,” he added.

”We will not allow any part of Bharat to become Dar-ul-Islam. VHP, Bajrang Dal, Durga Vahini along with revered saints and thinkers of the society have been fighting it steadfastly. We will speed up this work,” he said.

A large section of Christian missionaries is engaged in the agenda of engineering social enmity, fostering terror, and converting people through the tactics of force, fraud and allurement. It was also urged in the resolution that religious radicalism would prove to be a suicidal path for the Christian and the Muslim communities instead of their development, the VHP statement said.

They should replace their radical leadership by sensible and rational leadership who stand for development and harmonious co-existence, it added.

VHP’s board of trustees appealed to all sections of the society not to patronise such anti-national tendencies, not to destroy the future for the sake of immediate gains. It asked people to play their role in dispiriting religious dogmatist and separatist leadership and cheering open-minded leadership that takes the society towards harmony and development, the statement said.

It also appealed to the central and the state governments to control the madrassas and missionary schools that teach exclusivism, extremism and separatism and make arrangements for development and harmony-oriented education, it said.

The central government should enact stringent laws to prevent illegal conversions and religious dogmatism. Along with this, a demand was also made to pass and implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the entire country, it added.

Hindu society has long been a victim of religious dogmatism of the desert traditions, but it has proved formidable to those challenges, it said, adding, ”VHP will organise a mass awareness campaign in this regard to create eternal vigilance and expose the conspiracies of the dogmatic leadership.” ”At the meeting, as a resolution, an action plan has been made to make students ‘sanskaarvaan’ (well-cultivated) and ‘shraddhavaan’ (reverent) all over the world through Bal Sanskar Shalas, competitions of Dharmic education, spreading of holistic, altruistic and syncretic Hindu values,”Kumar said.

At present, the VHP is directly working in 30 countries, out of which representative activists from 24 countries had come for the International Coordination Meeting in Mumbai for three days at the end of December 2022.

”Respect for Hindu dharma by virtue of its respect for mother nature and life is increasing all over the world. Now we will promote this positive development and connect people with Hindu values of integral humanism. VHP will work with this goal to solve the problems of Hindus wherever they are and for the cause of a united, organised, well-refined, graceful and dignified Hindu society,” Kumar said.

In 2024, the VHP will complete 60 years, he said.