Praveen Togadia Praveen Togadia

The Vishva Hindu Parishad has unveiled its Hindu testament. The outfit's president Praveen Togadia on Tuesday rolled out a list of guidelines-from the number of children a Hindu family could have to the duties of a good Hindu.

Addressing a meeting at the Manohar Bhushan Inter College in Bareilly to celebrate the VHP's 50th anniversary, Togadia also blamed the minority community for the country's poverty.

Togadia said it is necessary for each Hindu family to have a Scheduled Caste family as their friends. Hindu families must oppose the scourge of untouchability by allowing Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe families to draw water from the same well, he added. Moreover, the Scheduled Caste people must be allowed to use the same cremation ground, Togadia said.

He further said that "like good human beings", each Hindu family must donate food grain to a poor Hindu every day. Moreover, Hindu families must feed a cow every day, he added. As part of the "largehearted Hindu altruism", it is also important to pay the education fee of a poor Hindu student every month, Togadia said. A Hindu doctor must treat a poor Hindu free-of-cost every day, he added.

Referring to the need for generating employment, the VHP president said every Hindu businessman must provide employment to unemployed Hindu youths. These Hindu youths must also be trained for upgrading their skills, he said. Children of Hindu families must be taught about religious heritage and each Hindu family must visit a temple every day, Togadia stressed.





Targeting Muslims he said, "The Muslims keep four wives and 10 children. This was how India became a poor country. Yet, the government seems to be least interested in preventing them from doing so." Supporting Bharatiya Janata Party MP Sakshi Maharaj for his remark that each Hindu family should have four children, Togadia said, "We are forced to shut our mouth when we say that the Hindu families should have more children. Unfortunately, those who speak in support of four children in each Hindu family are receiving notices from the party. I dare those who are opposed to that idea to bring a law against having more than two children, and make it mandatory for Muslim families to follow that law."

He further said, "There was a time when there were Hindus all over the world. According to our estimate, the Hindu population should have been 700 crore today. But there are only 100 crore now. There would be only 10 crore Hindus after 100 years, if we don't learn from our mistakes. The aim of VHP is to protect our offspring and make them prosperous."

Togadia declared that the VHP would celebrate its golden jubilee when Ram temple gets constructed in Ayodhya. "We will celebrate when we get the Ram temple. We will also hoist the saffron flag in Kabul, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Dhaka when we fulfil our plans," he said.

Togadia also vented his ire against the local district magistrate Sanjay Kumar for granting conditional permission to the VHP programme. "I want to ask the district magistrate whether he would be able to work in this country in the capacity of a district magistrate when the Hindus would be in minority. Tell me, how many Hindus are district magistrates in Pakistan? How many Hindu superintendents of police are there in Pakistan?" Togadia said.

On the occasion, VHP activists honoured Togadia with a silver crown and a garland weighing 51 kg. Later, Bareilly MP and Union minister Santosh Gangwar welcomed Togadia at the residence of local businessman Vinay Khandelwal.



For 'ghar wapsi'

The VHP on Wednesday said nothing will deter it from going ahead with its core agenda of 'ghar wapsi', and that it will hold a major convention in Delhi on March 1 to highlight its demands. "The VHP will organise a major 'dharam sabha' at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on March 1. It will be addressed by top leaders like Ashok Singhal and Praveen Togadia," VHP joint general secretary Surendra Jain said. "We will continue to hold 'dharam sabhas' across the country to highlight our core issues, like 'ghar wapsi', cow protection, uniform civil code and Ram Mandir construction," Jain said.