We will accept Christianity and Islam if our demands are not met: UP Hindus

Lucknow: Jan 11: After the Sangh Parivar's'Ghar Wapsi' flop show, a few Hindu communities in Uttar Pradesh, especially from lower castes, are now threatening the communal forces and authorities that they would convert en masse into Christianity and Islam if their demands were not fulfilled.

At least two incidents had been reported from different places in the North Indian state, where some communities threatened œmass conversion  to try to œforce  authorities to meet their various demands which, in one case, was their inclusion in the list of scheduled castes (SC) so that they could get job reservation.

It began with the demand from the œDhangarhs  (a community of herders) in Agra to issue them certificates declaring them as members of the SC in order to enable them to avail job reservation.

The community members threatened that they would undergo œmass conversion  and become Christians if their demand was not met. The community leaders have given the government a month's time to meet their demand.

Similarly, a few days back, a group of people from œValmiki  community also threatened to convert œen masse  to Islam after they were allegedly not allowed to undertake a œshobhayatra  (procession) and pay obeisance at a œValmiki temple  at Baghpat.

About 50 œValmikis  who live near the temple at Jamalpur Goma village in Baghpat district, about 600 km from here, alleged that they had not been allowed to worship at the temple and undertake the annual procession by the priest.

The priest Mahant Lakshyadevananda, however, claimed that he never prevented the œValmikis  from praying at the temple. œIt is basically a ploy to grab the land property that belonged to the temple. They (Valmikis) are threatening to convert to pressurize the authorities,  he claimed.

Saffron groups have held meetings with the œValmikis  in a bid to persuade them not to œconvert . The œValmikis  have set a deadline of January 26 for the administration to meet their demand.