Sandesh Prabhudesai
20 September 1999
The Sangh Parivar has apparently set its agenda for a nation-wide campaign soon after the new government takes over the next month, no matter which party it belongs to.
Issue : Conversions to Christianity. Target : Pope John Paul II visiting India in November. Plan : Goa-Delhi rath yatra against Christian atrocities. Demand : Public apology from the Pope.
Plans are likely to be finalised at a meeting scheduled in Goa on 22 September, to be attended by Sadanand Kakde, the regional chief of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, confirms Prof Subhash Velingkar, the local general secretary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
The Yatra, which would begin from Goa, will hit the national capital by 4 November via Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, demanding apology from the Pope, heading world-wide community of Roman Catholics, for the ongoing alleged forcible conversions.
Goa has a significance, says Prof Velingkar, as the roots of conversion lie here when the infamous Inquisition had begun here in the 16th century at the behest of the Jesuits while the Portuguese had set up their Asian capital in Old Goa. It had lasted for over two centuries.
Though plans are yet to be finalised, he does not deny the news report published in 'Gomantak', the leading local Marathi daily, which states that the Sangh Parivar would take up a nation wide campaign against conversions soon after the last stage of elections ends on 3 October.
Quoting the VHP functionary from Delhi, the news report states that the Sangh Parivar has also objected to the Indian government inviting the Pope to India as he would participate in the Asian level conference of Bishops, which would chalk out plans to spread out Christianity in the region in a decade.
The Sangh Parivar plans to take a stand that they would not object to the Pope coming here as the government invitee, provided he does not participate in any religious function.
Besides making a request in this regard to the President of India as well as the prime minister, the VHP also plans a nation wide meeting of tribal leaders as well as a conference, to debate upon 'decaying tribal culture due to Christian aggression'.
In order to make the yatra decorative, the VHP is planning to dig up sad parts of the history by putting up a mobile exhibition, which would picturise the history of the infamous inquisition that had taken place almost four centuries ago, while facing the new millennium.
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