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

    Khushwant Singh: A Born Raconteur, A Vintage Sardar

    Khushwant Singh: A Born Raconteur, A Vintage Sardar
    A born raconteur, Khushwant Singh could shine across the literary spectrum, be it short essays - both travelogues and pen-portraits - short stories, novels and even plays with memorable settings and characters. I have not read all his published oeuvre but a considerable part of it though a long time ago and it has left a definite impression

    Khushwant Singh: A Born Raconteur, A Vintage Sardar

    Minus Malice: Grand old lord of fine print

    Minus Malice: Grand old lord of fine print
    "All that I hope for is that when death comes to me, it comes swiftly, without much pain, like fading away in sound slumber. Till then I'll keep working and living each day as it comes," he wrote in the book "Absolute Khushwant: The Low-Down on Life, Death and Most Things In-Between" in 2010. His wish was realized.

    Minus Malice: Grand old lord of fine print

    No safety breach during mid-air jig: SpiceJet

    No safety breach during mid-air jig: SpiceJet
    Budget carrier SpiceJet Thursday said its crew did not violate any safety norms while conducting mid-air dances in some of its flights as part of the Holi celebrations.

    No safety breach during mid-air jig: SpiceJet

    US court reserves ruling in 1984 riots case

    US court reserves ruling in 1984 riots case
    A US court has reserved its ruling on the Congress party's plea for dismissal of a human rights violation case relating to the 1984 anti-Sikh violence filed by a US-based Sikh rights group.

    US court reserves ruling in 1984 riots case

    Man killed, nine injured in Maharashtra train accident

    Man killed, nine injured in Maharashtra train accident
    A man was killed and nine others were injured when five coaches of a suburban train derailed near Titwala in Thane district here Thursday, officials said.

    Man killed, nine injured in Maharashtra train accident

    RIP: Khushwant Singh is dead

    RIP: Khushwant Singh is dead
    Khushwant Singh, author, journalist, commentator, wit and raconteur par excellence, died at his home here Thursday morning, in his 100th year of birth, after having led a life that, in the words of his son, "touched the stars" and left an indelible and acerbic mark on Indian journalism and contemporary writing.

    RIP: Khushwant Singh is dead