After backlash, Tejasvi Surya withdraws remarks on "Hindu revival"

BJP leader Tejasvi Surya has apologised for the controversy generated by his remarks on "Hindu revival" and "unconditionally" withdrawn his statements after massive backlash from the public. The BJP MP came under fire for certain remarks made on conversions in the aftermath of two other inflammatory speeches made by Hindi leaders at Delhi and Haridwar.

"At a program held in Udupi Sri Krishna Mutt two days ago, I spoke on the subject of 'Hindu Revival in Bharat'. Certain statements from my speech has regrettably created an avoidable controversy. I therefore unconditionally withdraw the statements," Surya tweeted on Monday morning.

During Surya's speech at the programme, he addressed the issue of conversion as an "anomaly" that was taking Hindu's out of the "mother religion". The only solution to this was to being back all Hindu's who have converted and make them part of the fold again, the MP from Karnataka is quoted as saying. Annual targets should be given to mutta and temples to reconvert people back to Hinduism, he said.

"Those people who have left their mother religion and have 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 in whole, brought back into the Hindu faith, brought back to the mother faith," asserted the 31-year-old MP from Bangalore South.

Karnataka recently passed the Right To Freedom of Religion Bill in the winter session of its legislative assembly at Belagavi, which critics say is aimed at oppressing minorities, specifically the Christian community which has come under attack in Karnataka for perceived forced conversions of poor Hindu families.

In the recent "Dharma Sansad" held at Haridwar, inflammatory speeches were given by the likes of Hindu Raksha Sena Prabhodhanand Giri who called for "ethnic cleansing" of Muslims as well as BJO leader Ashwini Upadhyay who is on bail in an ongoing hate speech case. Viral videos of the event cause outrage and a team of 76 lawyers wrote a letter to the Supreme Court urging it to take suo moto cognizance of the act.

On Thursday last week, the Uttarakhand Police said it had filed an FIR under Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups and acts prejudicial to harmony) against Waseem Rizvi and "others". The former chairman of the Shia Waqf Board, Rizvi, recently converted to Hinduism and changed his name to Jitendra Narayan Tyagi. Police said they would be "adding more names once the investigation starts".