On a high, Hindu outfits plan wider reach in UP

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With the BJP having come to power, Hindu outfits the VHP, the Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) and the ABVP, the RSS students’ wing, are going for an organisational expansion in Uttar Pradesh. Separate efforts by the three organisations had helped the BJP win 71 of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state, where assembly elections are due in 2016.

In a recent meeting, HYV head Yogi Adityanath, a BJP MP, set a target of at least one lakh volunteers in each district by September-end. The HYV has 90 units in 75 districts, with an average 7,000 volunteers in each. An office-bearer admitted the distribution is lopsided — units in eastern UP boast around 25,000 each while those in western and central UP have 200 to 500 each.

“As the government at the Centre is led by the BJP, which has a nationalist ideology, we are hopeful it will address issues relating to Hindus,” said HYV media in-charge R P Singh. These include cow slaughter, religious conversion, demographics, and terrorism.

The VHP has revived after 10 years its state-level training sessions for new members, holding one in Lucknow. Workers from all four regions — Awadh, Kanpur, Goraksh and Kashi — participated in the 10-day camp that began in Lucknow Sunday. “New members will be trained to introduce more new people. They will be briefed on contemporary issues and programmes being run for stopping conversion of Hindus, for security of temples and for construction of a temple in Ayodhya,” said Sharad Sharma, VHP media-in-charge. VHP president Pravin Togadia will attend the concluding session on June 17 to help us personalise your reading experience.

 

The ABVP, meanwhile, has restructured its setup from three regional units (west, central and eastern UP) to six, these being Gorakhpur, Kashi, Awadh, Kanpur, Braj and Meerut. “A lot of new people have joined us in the last few days and a meeting of the office-bearers of the new regional units will be organised to decide our future organisational plans,” said the ABVP’s UP regional organisational secretary Dharampal Singh.

Source: Indian Express