"Religious Conversion Incidents Not Just In UP": Yogi Adityanath

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said that recently an incident of converting schoolchildren through online gaming was reported, and such incidents of religious conversion are happening not just in UP.

Participating in the 'Save Culture Save India Mission' organized by "Save Culture Save India Foundation" at Gautam Buddha Nagar University on Sunday, CM Yogi said that the digital age is as beneficial as it is dangerous.

"Recently an incident came to light, in which school children were being converted through online gaming. The huge gang was busted by our police. Similarly, another gang engaged in converting deaf and dumb children was exposed a few days ago. The incidents of religious conversion are not happening only in Uttar Pradesh. Such people target decent families as part of a conspiracy. The recent incidents in Delhi and Mumbai are great examples of this. Our government has brought an ordinance to stop this and the law is working accordingly", he remarked.

CM Yogi further said that cultural warriors should make people aware of the attacks on our culture in the digital age, but must not take the law into their hands as it would be helping such elements in getting away.

"On receiving any such information, inform the Cultural Warrior Police immediately", he said.

The Chief Minister said that all the world's countries have their own unique identities. "For example, France's identity is art, whereas Britain is known for its business interests. Similarly, the identity of India is its culture. Sanskrit and culture are the identity of India and no one is allowed to play with this. You can't serve anything in the society in the name of freedom of expression. It also has some rules and regulations", he added.

CM Yogi said that the Mughals ruled this country comfortably until they attacked temples as with this their decline started, adding that the descendants of Aurangzeb are pulling rickshaws in Kolkata now.

Emphasising that there have been good and bad people in every period, Yogi said that it is important that good people become part of the campaign to save culture and make people aware.

On the occasion, the CM also launched the website of 'Save Culture Save India Mission' and honoured cultural warriors.

Cultural warriors were presented a cheque of Rs one lakh and a citation by the Foundation.

The awardees included Abhay Shah, who runs the Swachh Cyber India movement, Manish Prania, creative branding and maker of the much talked about film 'Ek Ladki', Vaishali Shah, senior writer and CEO of Pixel, filmmaker Praveen Chaturvedi, Hindu Janajagaran Samiti spokesperson Ramesh Shinde, journalist Swati Goyal Sharma, TV anchor Pradeep Bhandari, Sanjeev Newar, who runs the Gems of Bollywood movement and Supreme Court advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain.

CM Yogi also presented shawl and citation to the Foundation's Business and revenue advisor Uttam Dave as well as industrialist Umesh Chhajje and senior advocate Amit Singh who are associated with the foundation.

Former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Central Information Commissioner Uday Mahurkar, Industrial Development Minister Nand Gopal Gupta 'Nandi', Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Industrial Development Jaswant Singh Saini, Minister of State for Public Works Brijesh Singh and university teachers and students were present in the programme.

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