BENGALURU: Bengaluru South MP and the BJP's Yuva Morcha president Tejasvi Surya on Monday withdrew his controversial statements over reconversion of “those who left Hindu fold.”
“At a programme held in Udupi Sri Krishna Mutt two days ago, I spoke on the subject of ‘Hindu Revival in Bharat’. Certain statements from my speech have regrettably created an avoidable controversy. I, therefore, unconditionally withdraw the statements,” Tejasvi Surya said taking to a social media platform.
Surya’s remarks were slammed by netizens and opposition Congress leaders. The BJP MP had stated that Hindus should understand that mere stopping of conversion is not a way to be thought, but reconverting those who have left the Hindu fold should be the dictum.
"Those who have left their mother religion for various socio-political-economic reasons over the course of India's history, those who have gone out of the Hindu fold must be brought back into the Hindu faith," he had stated while speaking at Udupi.
Claiming it to be a fact of history, he said, “The invasion of Islam from the North was first successfully tackled by rulers of Vijayanagara Empire in Karnataka. They sent the ‘Mleccha’ or the foreign barbaric forces back. There cannot be a Hindu without Hindutva, which preaches the people to revolt against any assault on their religion.’’
Earlier during an interaction with some intellectuals, he claimed that the ancestors of present-day Christians and Muslims were forcibly converted from Hinduism.
“The Constitution begins with ‘India that is Bharath’. If India has to retain its essence, it has to be a Hindu majority nation," he added.