Thursday, December 25, 2025
ADVT 
India

Poor Muslims In Agra Who Converted Will Be Given Ration Cards: Bajrang Dal

IANS, 09 Dec, 2014 12:40 PM
    A Bajrang Dal leader said Tuesday that all the 300 poor Muslims who he said had embraced Hinduism here will be given ration cards they badly lacked.
     
    Amid claims by one of the 300 that they were forced to give up Islam, Bajrang Dal's Ajju Chauhan said everyone in the group would be now taught Hindu rituals.
     
    The Bajrang Dal organised the conversion ceremony Monday.
     
    Chauhan, the group's co-convener, said Tuesday that all those who converted to Hinduism would be "Sanskritised". They would be registered as voters and would get ration cards. 
     
    He said the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), to which the Bajrang Dal is allied, had been working "hard for three months to persuade them to convert to Hinduism". 
     
    The 300 members of some 60 Muslim families who reportedly embraced Hinduism Monday evening live in a slum on the outskirts of the Taj city -- and are miserably poor.
     
    Most of them had lived near Madhu Nagar on Gwalior Road for 17 long years after migrating either from West Bengal or Bangladesh. 
     
    Agra's Muslim leaders mostly declined to comment on the episode.
     
    But one Muslim scholar who did not want to be quoted by name alleged that those who converted were not Muslims.
     
    "It is true that they are all from outside Agra, perhaps from Bangladesh, and had been living here illegally as they have no voter, Adhaar or ration cards," he said.
     
    Munira, one of the 300, alleged they were lured to the event on the promise of giving them a plot of land and ration cards.
     
    "We were taken to a place where a fire ceremony was on," Munira told ABP news channel. "We were made to sit there. We became panicky. We were told to pray to Hindu gods. We did whatever they told us...
     
    "But now we are again reading the Holy Quran and our family members offered namaz today," he added.
     
    Agra's Senior Superintendent of Police Shalabh Mathur said no complaint had been registered regarding the event. "We will take action if there is a complaint."
     
    A Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader, Premendra Jain, wondered if Bangladeshis could be allowed to live in India if they give up Islam.
     
    "We have been demanding the expulsion of all Bangladeshis living illegally in India," Jain told IANS. 
     
    "Now these people have been converted to Hinduism. Does it mean all those staying in India illegally will be allowed to stay here if they convert?"

    MORE India ARTICLES

    It will be Kejriwal vs Modi in Varanasi

    It will be Kejriwal vs Modi in Varanasi
    In what will be the mother of all battles in the coming election, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal announced Tuesday he will take on BJP's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi from this Hindu holy city.

    It will be Kejriwal vs Modi in Varanasi

    The 'donkey route' to Britain: Hair-raising tales of illegal immigration

    The 'donkey route' to Britain: Hair-raising tales of illegal immigration
    This is the hair-rising tale of 12 Indians cheated by a dodgy agent who extracts big money from them on false promises and sent them off on “the donkey route” through Russia and Europe to Britain. 

    The 'donkey route' to Britain: Hair-raising tales of illegal immigration

    AAP Favours Consensual Gay Sex

    AAP Favours Consensual Gay Sex
    In a significant championing of gender justice and gay rights, the 16-month-old Aam Admi Party (AAP) will favour decriminalisation of homosexuality in its much-awaited manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls, party sources said.

    AAP Favours Consensual Gay Sex

    Malaysian Flight MH370: Flight Crashed In Southern Indian Ocean, No Survivors

    Malaysian Flight MH370: Flight Crashed In Southern Indian Ocean, No Survivors
    The Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that went missing shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur March 8 with 239 people on board ended in the southern Indian Ocean and there is no hope of any survivors, Malaysian authorities announced Monday.

    Malaysian Flight MH370: Flight Crashed In Southern Indian Ocean, No Survivors

    Defiant Jaswant takes on NaMo, dares BJP to sack him

    Defiant Jaswant takes on NaMo, dares BJP to sack him
    Rebel BJP leader Jaswant Singh Monday publicly took on its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi after entering the Lok Sabha polls as an independent, saying his conduct betrays arrogance.

    Defiant Jaswant takes on NaMo, dares BJP to sack him

    After Amarinder Congress fields Sunil Jakhar in Punjab

    After Amarinder Congress fields Sunil Jakhar in Punjab
    Continuing its move to field party bigwigs in in Punjab, the Congress Monday announced that it was fielding Sunil Kumar Jakhar, the leader of opposition in state assembly, as its candidate from the state's Ferozepur seat for the Lok Sabha elections.

    After Amarinder Congress fields Sunil Jakhar in Punjab