Varanasi, India - The RSS on Sunday expressed concern at reports of growing number of religious conversion by Christian missionaries across the country and asked the Centre to take steps to curb their activities.
"The activities of the Christian missionaries have increased during the rule of the UPA government and they were luring the poor Hindus into their fold across the country but government was not making any effort to curb the activities of the missionary organisations," RSS joint general secretary Madan Das Devi told reporters here.
"Government should take steps to put a check on the activities of the Christian Missionary organisations vis-a-vis religious conversion," he said.
"Devi, however, conceded that apart from the activities of the Christian missionaries, the socio-economic problems and various vices gripping the Hindu society was also responsible for the conversation by the poor people to other religions.
Stating that the RSS, at its national executive meeting here, have noted the issue of religious conversion with grave concern, Devi said the Sangh Parivar would also take steps on its own to address the problems of these people who were susceptible to the allurements of the missionaries to convert to their religion.
The RSS also expressed concern at the efforts of the mainstream political parties to appease the minority communities with an eye on their votebank and asked all political parties to adopt the principle of `justice to all, appeasement to none.`
Referring to the apparent decline of its sister organisation, the BJP, over the years, Devi said the saffron party will have to return to its ideological moorings as a votary of the `Hindutva` in order to arrest the political and electoral slide.
The BJP would have to return to its Hindutava ideology to restore its status as a viable political alternative at the national level, he said, but ruled out that the RSS would intervene in anyway to shape the ideology and leadership of the saffron party.
The RSS does not interfere in the activities of the BJP nor does it decide the party`s leadership, he said in reply to the RSS`s assessment of the saffron party and its leadership under the incumbent president Rajanath Singh.
The RSS joint general secretary also denied that it ever thought of launching a political party to articulate its ideology and said the political leadership to represent the Sangh Parivar`s ideology was very much present in the mainstream polity of our country.
The RSS leader also took serious exception to the sacred River Ganges allegedly being not allowed to traverse through its natural course vis-a-vis the construction of Tehri Dam in Uttaranchal and said the river, being sacred and pious to the Hindus, should not be disturbed by human machination to either its flow at any point or being diverted due to whatesoever reasons.
Meanwhile, in a considered move to play up the controversial issue of the ram temple construction at Ayodhya ahead of the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and other states next year, the RSS today adopted a resolution backing the VHP`s agenda on the issue.