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Hindu campaigner wins place in Vajpayee ministry >From Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, Jan 29 (IANS) New minister Dilip Singh Judev has had his share of controversies long before becoming one of the gainers in the cabinet reshuffle Wednesday. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha MP from Chhattisgarh is wedded to the cause of bringing people back into the Hindu fold. He is famed for leading the "Ghar Vaapasi" (return home) movement against religious conversions in the tribal areas of the country, aimed at re-converting original Hindus who adopted other religions. Known to set targets for his mission to bring back people into Hinduism, Judev has vowed to "re-convert" some 300,000 Christians this year. And with the BJP announcing anti-conversion as a major plank for elections in states, his movement has assumed great importance for the party. Judev stunned many when he sponsored the legal defence of Dara Singh, the prime accused in the gruesome killings in 1999 of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons in Orissa. Rising to Singh's defence, Judev announced that he believed he was innocent, and instead accused Christian missionaries of converting people using all kinds of illegal and unethical means. Unlike many others in his party, the 53-year-old MP has flaunted his loyalty to the BJP's Hindu nationalist mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the rightwing Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). The father of three sons began his political career as president of the municipal board in his native place Jashpur that now falls in Chhattisgarh. He was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1989, and then the Rajya Sabha in 1992. All along he has been deeply involved in the activities of the RSS. For over a decade now, he has come to steer a mass re-conversion drive in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. In 1998, Judev, ironically educated at a college run by Jesuit priests, declared "the year of re-conversion" and conducted a string of "home-coming ceremonies" across Madhya Pradesh vowing to bring 100,000 tribal Christians back into the Hindu fold. Religious re-conversions are the main agenda of Judev's "Vanvasi Kalyan Samiti (tribal welfare committee)" and the campaigns set yearly targets for converting Christians back into Hinduism. His latest campaign was held last month for 250 Christian families in the Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh, which will go to the polls this year. "Everybody knows what has been happening in Chhattisgarh in the past two years," Judev told villagers at a meeting. "Unless the Hindus unite and fight the churches' game plan to convert the underprivileged Dalits, the onslaught will continue." "A Hindu can build a temple but a temple can't make a Hindu. Had de-conversions been organized by our forefathers, there would have been no Pakistan, Bangladesh or Kashmir today," he reasoned. --Indo-Asian News Service
