The parichay mala series of booklets which were circulated among the participants at the nine-day meet which concluded here on Wednesday lists several such instances as `achievements' and outlines the future plans of the VHP for this campaign. For this drive of, what the VHP calls, `reconverting' people back to Hinduism, the organisation has targeted 200 `sensitive' districts in the country. Its focus is now on the north-eastern states and tribal areas of the country.

According to part six of the series of booklets, a corpus fund of Rs 5 crore is being set up for carrying out the plan and VHP workers have established contacts in 10,000 villages of the country for the purpose. The organisation claims to havealready reconverted 1.80 lakh people to Hinduism.

The plan for the next years further envisages jan jagran (public awareness) campaigns for `reconversion' in 50,000 villages of the 200 districts. A thousand workers will be trained for carrying out the drive and a shakti kendra (power centre) will be set up for every 25 villages in these districts. The task will be supervised by dharma extension committees set up by the VHP in 23 `provinces', the jurisdictional areas of its organisational units.

How exactly is this drive carried out? Saintly claims of VHP leaders notwithstanding, the `achievements' listed in booklet number 5 of the parichay mala mentions forcible occupation of places of worship and schools run by missionaries of other religions, physically assaulting them at times, and the `demoralising' effect all this had on them.

It cites an incident in Hazaribagh-Chatra area in south Bihar where the VHP occupied a school run by Christian missionaries in Darwera village.Two other villages also similarly `handed over' the Christian schools to VHP. In one village in the same region, a VHP-led mob forced Christians to tender a written apology after a clash. In Kospara village in Gopali Ashram, West Bengal, VHP took possession of a school building set up by Christians `who have fled the place'. In Halflong area in Assam, a family that converted to Christianity was forced to leave the village, despite the court ruling that the Indian Constitution guaranteed the fundamental right to everyone to adopt whatever religion he chooses to.

The VHP has set up schools in Manipur where it claims that while it developed the students' character and made them cultured, the Christian schools were producing terrorists.

It mentions an incident in Kota district of Rajasthan where VHP student workers beat up Christian missionaries and gloats over the fact that they successfully evaded legal action despite a police case as the police could not find any evidence against the miscreants. TheChristians have since stopped going to that village, the booklet says.