Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
By Dheeraj Fartode
Expressing deep concern over rise of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) and its adverse impact on social and political fabric of India, International Working President of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Dr Pravin Togadia on Thursday said that emergence of MIM would shrink the political space and will make Muslims politically unsafe.
Traditionally, Muslims votes en bloc for Congress or NCP, but these votes have now shifted to parties like MIM which actually helped the BJP in winning elections, Togadia claimed during an exclusive interview to The Hitavada. However, the fire-brand VHP leader claimed that corresponding decrease in representation of Muslims in Congress and NCP would actually affect political empowerment of Muslims in future. Any attempt by outfits like MIM to woo Scheduled Castes will not succeed, he predicted citing historic decision of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar who refused to embrace Islam.
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| Dr Pravin Togadia, International Working President of VHP |
On the issue of conversion row, the VHP leader said that Hindus are victim of religious conversion throughout the world and India has to pay a heavy price due to massive conversion of Hindu society in the past. “Situation of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kashmir valley is direct result of conversion of Hindus. It is time for Hindus to unite and not to fall prey to conversion,” the VHP leader appealed.
Reacting strongly to ongoing debate over conversion, Dr Togadia reminded them to object it to forcible conversion started way back in 712 AD by Muhammad Bin Qasim and debunked the criticism as politically motivated and historically incorrect.
Citing Supreme Court’s 1977 ruling in Rev Stanislaus vs Madhya Pradesh, Dr Togadia said that right to profess, practice and propagate religion is a fundamental right. But, right to profess does not mean right to convert hence, conversion is an unconstitutional activity.
Home coming is not conversion
On the issue of ‘Ghar Wapsi’ (home coming), Dr Togadia said that VHP and RSS are only doing home coming of converted Hindus and does not support any conversion. First home coming was done by Jagadguru Ramanandacharya before 700 years and 25,000 Muslims were reconverted to Hindu at Ayodhya when there was no RSS and VHP. Another mass home coming of 3 lakh Hindus was done by Swami Shraddhanand in 1920 for that he was killed. Hindus were waiting for peaceful democratic way of conversion and nobody should object to home coming, he said.
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