The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) will organise a “Hindu-only” cricket tournament in Gujarat as part of their ongoing enrolment drive in the state, senior office bearers told The Indian Express Tuesday.
The Bajrang Dal, a frontal organisation of the VHP, announced the cricket tournament will be held in May in different cities of North Gujarat, including Ahmedabad. “We are in talks with different local-level cricket teams in Ahmedabad and other cities. The Bajrang Dal will organise a tournament in North Gujarat where teams will be invited only on one condition — that all players are Hindus,” said Jwalit Mehta, president of Bajrang Dal, North Gujarat.
The announcement comes two days after the Bajrang Dal conducted its biggest enrolment drive in the past two decades in Gujarat. Nearly 2,600 youths were given the ‘Trishul Diksha’ at a ceremony in Himmatnagar of Sabarkantha. With eight months to go for the Vidhansabha polls, the right-wing organisation is seen mobilising its cadre and aggressively recruiting new members from different cities of the state.
Meanwhile, the VHP organised a “Sant Sammelan” at Shri Bharti Ashram in Sarkhej of Ahmedabad Tuesday. Top VHP leaders from the state attended the event to discuss their demands. “As per the directions of the ‘kendriya margadarshak mandal’ of VHP, the sants associated with our organisation discussed several key issues such as bringing a law to remove government control over Hindu temples and other religious institutions, tax relief for cow shelters and religious institutions, ending caste-based discrimination, ouster of those having converted from SC/ST categories by bringing constitutional change and a central law to end religious conversion,” said VHP spokesperson Hitendrasinh Rajput.
This article first appeared on indianexpress.com