It was mid-afternoon on December 3, 2023, when it became clear that the BJP had ousted the Bhupesh Baghel government in Chhattisgarh. It took another week for the party to announce its CM-designate Vishnu Deo Sai. While the state was rejoicing over the anointment of its first tribal chief minister, a silent celebration was underway that paved the way for mass ‘Ghar Wapsi’ or re-conversion events across the state.
Ever since the BJP came to power, there have been at least four such ‘Ghar Wapsi’ events across Chhattisgarh, including the latest in the heart of capital Raipur. Nearly 2,000 were re-converted to Hinduism, courtesy one man who is spearheading the effort — BJP’s Chhattisgarh state secretary Prabal Pratap Singh Judev. However, before BJP’s designation, comes another title — Judev is the head of the Akhil Bharatiya Ghar Wapsi drive and claims to have reconverted 17,000 people so far across different parts of India.
What’s even more interesting is that all these mass events of reconversions took place around red letter days — Christmas, New Year’s Eve last year and Republic Day this year.
When Md Akbar became Satyam
Md Akbar hails from Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur. On January 27 this year, he was among 1,000 people who were converted back to Hinduism. This mass ‘Ghar Wapsi’ was planned by Judev on the third day of Hanumanth Katha, which was organised by Madhya Pradesh-based Bageshwar Dham. The Dham’s chief Pandit Dheerendra Shastri was personally present at the event, addressing a packed house and promising a ‘Hindu Rashtra’.
In the mega event, a total of 1,000 people from 251 families were welcomed back to the ‘Sanatan’ fold by the BJP secretary who washed their feet.
“This is a tradition that my father Kumar Dilip Singh Judev started 30 years ago. While normally reconversions include a cleansing process, he started washing people’s feet to stress that despite being from the royal family, if he could wash a tribal man’s feet to welcome him back to Hinduism, he too would go back to his roots,” Judev told News18.
3 more ‘Ghar Wapsis’ last December
Ever since BJP came to power in Chhattisgarh, there have been three ‘Ghar Wapsi’ events in the state, though not of the same scale as the January 27 gathering.
One event took place on December 24 at Kotgora town in Korba district, while another was held the very next day. On Christmas, a reconversion event was organised at Kilkila village that falls under Lailunga Tehsil and Raigarh district. The third event took place a day before New Year’s Eve — on December 30 — at Ambikapur, which falls under the Surguja district and is 336 kilometres away from Raipur.
Anil Singh, who works closely with Judev and is the coordinator of the Akhil Bharatiya Ghar Wapsi drive, told News18 that 101 families were reconverted in Katgora while 28 families were brought back to the Hindu fold in Ambikapur. The event at Kilkila village saw only eight families return. “On an average, more than 650 individuals were reconverted in those three events,” said Singh.
Ghar Wapsi to pick pace
In the coming days, Ghar Wapsi activities will pick pace further, said Judev. “It’s not necessary that all events will be as big as the one in Raipur. Scales will vary. But such events will continue to take place,” he said.
Judev reasons that this is because the ‘wrong’ of the last five years will have to be ‘corrected’. “In the Baghel regime, conversion was rampant. Particularly during the pandemic, the poor and needy were coerced into conversion. No action was taken by the government. Historically, Congress governments never opposed conversions. Now, many such events will be coming up in the weeks and months ahead to bring back those who left the Sanatan fold and want to come back desperately,” he added.
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