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RSS plans anti-Christian campaign to coincide with Pope's visit

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

The Sangh Parivar has apparently planned a nation-wide campaign soon after the new government takes over next month, no matter which party or combination forms it.

The issue: conversion to Christianity. The target: Pope John Paul II who is visiting India in November. The plan: a Goa-Delhi rath yatra against Christian atrocities. The demand: a public apology from the Pope.

Plans are likely to be finalised at a meeting scheduled in Goa this week to be attended by Sadanand Kakde, the regional chief of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

The yatra will hit the national capital by November 4 and will pass through Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

''Goa is significant,'' says Professor Subash Velingkar of the RSS, ''as the roots of conversion lie here. In the 16th century the Jesuits and the Portuguese set up their Asian capital in Old Goa. Their rule lasted for four centuries and had a lot of repercussions.''

A report in Goa's leading Marathi daily Gomantak quoted a VHP functionary from Delhi as saying that the Sangh Parivar also objected to the Indian government inviting the Pope to India as he would be participating in the Asian conference of bishops, which would chalk out plans to spread Christianity in the region in the coming decade.

The Sangh Parivar's stand is that it will not object to the Pope coming to India as a government invitee but would object if he participates in any religious function.

Besides making a request in this regard to President K R Narayanan as well as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the VHP also plans a nation-wide meeting of tribal leaders and a conference to debate on 'decaying tribal culture due to Christian aggression'.

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