He's back, and promoted! Rajeshwar Singh, architect of ghar wapsi returns to work

He may have been packed off on an indefinite leave after the uproar over the ghar wapsi schemes that even disrupted the Parliament, but the architect of the much criticised scheme, Rajeshwar Singh, is reportedly back and he’s even received a promotion.

Singh, who’s was head of the Dharam Jagran Samaj,  was sent off on leave after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to express his annoyance over the ‘ghar wapsi’ ceremony held in December 2014 in Agra that had resulted in opposition parties disrupting the entire winter session of Parliament.

Citing ill health and diabetes at the time, Singh has now not just returned but has also been promoted in the RSS to Chhetra Pracharak (Karyakari Sadasyata) in which he will work on increasing the strength of the organisation and will be moving to Meerut, reports the Times of India .

He was earlier the head of the Dharam Jagran Samaj (DJS) for the western UP and Uttarakhand regions, which according to him comes lower in the hierarchy followed in Hindutva groups.

“I worked in DJS since 1996 and now I am back with the matra sangathan (mother organisation),” Singh told TOI.

Despite the controversy over his first ’re-conversion’ drive, Singh had been planning another massive re-conversion drive in Aligarh but had his plans were shelved at the last minute. The RSS pracharak claims to have conducted ghar wapsi of over 3,00,000 people since 1996 and has been at the forefront of the campaign in the western Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand regions.

However, the new posting will also mean that he won’t directly be involved with the controversial ‘ghar wapsi’ schemes directly and won’t be publicly required to make his views on conversion known. So no more declaration of last days of Christianity and Islam in the country, though he can continue to work towards that goal.

And it’s also no indication that won’t mean that the RSS and other organisations will ease up.

As Firstpost’s Sanjay Singh had pointed out the RSS, or, for that matter, the BJP, is not as such against ghar wapsi which has been proceeding quietly for decades.

“It was the manner in which Singh chose to play it before the media – where he claimed India would become a Hindu nation by 2021 by converting or deporting the rest – that made the BJP cringe,” he noted.

Firstpost’s Sandip Roy had also p ointed out the rationale of the ghar wapsi scheme at the time:

The phrasing of “ghar vapsi” is meant to show the kinder gentler face of Hindutva. This is not about scaring minorities or showing them their place, but hanging out a sort of “Welcome Home” banner, reminiscent of a grand school reunion. Time, in this case, is elastic and immaterial. The returning prodigal son or daughter could someone who converted three years ago or whose forefathers converted three centuries ago.

Singh may be find cheer in the fact that he’s back with the mother organisation, but it’s not going to mean the end of _ghar wapsi-_type schemes that he once spearheaded any time soon. It’s just going to be done without a loudmouth as its face.