India's militant Hindu outfit claims 'converting' 300 Muslims

AGRA: A Bajrang Dal leader said on Tuesday that all the 300 Muslims in Agra who had converted to Hinduism will be given ration cards.
The Bajrang Dal had organized the conversion ceremony on Monday, but one of the 300 converts claims that they were forced to give up Islam.
Bajrang Dal's Ajju Chauhan said everyone in the group would be taught Hindu rituals, and that all those who converted to Hinduism would be 'Sanskritized', registered as voters and get ration cards, IANS reported.
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 on Monday, 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 named, 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.
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?," he asked.