No VHP protests during visit
Tribune News Service and Agencies

NEW DELHI, Nov 1 — Senior VHP leader Acharya Giriraj Kishore today said his organisation would not hold any protests of "dharnas" during the visit of Pope John Paul II here from November 5 to 8.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad also had no intention of seeking a meeting with the Pope of lodge protests against the forcible conversion of tribals to Christianity, he said here.

The Goa-Delhi yatra being taken out by the Rashtriya Sanskriti Manch to highlight the issue of forcible conversions would culminate here with a public meeting on November 4.

After November 4, there would be no anti-Pope meetings or protests by the VHP, he said.

Acharya Kishore said the VHP and its allied organisations had been successful in registering their protest against forcible conversions and he was confident that the message would have reached the Pope.

He described as "false and mischievous" certain newspaper reports quoting him as having described the Pope as a "bandit".

However, he reiterated the VHP and RSS demand that the Pope seek pardon for the atrocities committed in Goa just as he had apologised for the religious persecution in Brazil and Jamaica.

The Pope should also make a public declaration during his visit that the church would not use inducements for religious conversions in India, he added.

Doordarshan is to telecast live on its international channel three main programmes to be attended by Pope John Paul II, including the Papal Mass at Jawaharhal Nehru Stadium here on the morning of November 7.

The government has also given permission to the European Broadcasting Union to uplink through VSNL the programmes of the Pope during his November 5 to 8 visit here, an official release said here today.

Giving details of the "extensive coverage" of the Pope's functions by Prasar Bharati, Doordarshan said DD-International would telecast live the Pope's address to 400 archbishops of Asia at Sacred Heart Cathedral on the evening of November 6, the Holy Mass at the stadium on the morning of November 7 and the inter-religious meeting at Vigyan Bhavan on the evening of November 7.

The primary channel of Doordarshan, DD-1, would also telecast live the Vigyan Bhawan programme, which would be carried live by the Doordarshan news channel also.

While the government has not conceded the request of the Catholic Church for the live telecast of the stadium function on DD-1, it has said the primary channel and the news channel would telecast daily reports on the Pope's functions.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has alleged the VHP and other Sangh Parivar outfits were receiving "unaccounted funds" from across the globe, including Christian organisations like Salvation Army, and demanded that the government come out with full facts about foreign funding to NGOs "to stop the smear campaign against missionary work."

"The VHP receives the same if not more funds from western countries through fund raisers and other events. Organisations like the Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram have launched advertisement campaigns in western media to raise money in the name of tribal uplift," former Director of Indian Social Institute (ISI) Dr Walter Fernandes told reporters here today.

He was responding to charges by Parivar outfits that missionaries were using foreign funds for conversion work.

"Where to these funds go? Do they go for building temples or holding yatras. Sangh Parivar outfits do not even submit their accounts under the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA)", Dr Fernandes alleged.

Meanwhile, Sangh Parivar outfits, including the VHP and the Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, have dared the Catholic Church to prove its allegation that they received "unaccounted funds" from across the globe, including Christian organisations like Salvation Army.

"I will quit the VHP if they prove that we receive foreign funds. The allegation is baseless", VHP general secretary Acharya Giriraj Kishore said today when asked about the charges made by the Church earlier in the day.