Lucknow: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Friday said religious converts should not be given the benefit of reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The outfit also asserted that it would not allow religious converts to take “double benefit”. However, it had no complaint if anyone from Buddhism or Sikhism was taking “double benefit”, adding that Christianity and Islam were not religions born in India.
Religious converts should not get the benefit of reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, VHP national spokesperson Vijay Shankar Tiwari said at a press conference at Vishwa Samvad Kendra here.
He said the converts were not only taking advantage of caste-based reservation but also of being a minority.
Tiwari, who launched the Diwali special issue of the VHP magazine ‘Hindu Vishwas’, added that the organisation would no longer allow religious converts to benefit doubly.
When asked how the organisation would prevent this practice, Tiwari said, “Hindu society is a big society, and the central government will have to accept it and take steps to stop it.”
The VHP leader also said this practice was against the basic spirit of the Constitution.
He alleged that some people were converting for greed of this double benefit and called it a threat to the country. Targeting Christian conversion, he said it was creating an anti-national atmosphere.
Tiwari added that this issue was very old and that converts should not benefit doubly. He also claimed that BR Ambedkar, former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi wanted the same.
However, former prime ministers Rajiv Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda were in its favour, he alleged. He also claimed that an order was issued in 1950 that prevented converts from getting double benefit but it was not implemented.
While talking about the need to control the growing population, Tiwari also said they were “not in favour of caste-based census”.
