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Vinayakrao Deshpande

Affiliation: Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP)
Categories: Hate Mongers
Location: Delhi, India

Vinayakrao Deshpande is the current Organizing Secretary General of Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Formerly, he was the International General Secretary of the organization.

Deshpande maintains a very low public profile but is well known among the Sangh leadership circles. He is a regular speaker at camps where VHP militants are trained in firearms, judo, and karate.

He was one of the earlier promoters of the love jihad conspiracy theory. In August 2014, he said: “This issue affects over one lakh girls every year in the country. VHP has saved over 10,000 girls after counseling in the past, and many of them got remarried with Hindu boys.”

Deshpande often vilifies and demonizes Muslim and Christian minorities, falsely accusing them of working under a foreign conspiracy to convert people from the scheduled caste and tribal communities.

He also has a problem with Halal-marked products in the market and calls it a matter of “serious concern” for the country.

“Today, efforts have been made to do the business of Halal Marked items in billions and trillions. The proceeds from this are being used to increase terrorist organizations. About 100 companies are using the Halal mark within the country. People of India to boycott all the items with Halal mark,” he said.

(VHP was designated as a militant religious organization by the World Factbook of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2018. VHP is an affiliate of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a far-right Hindu nationalist organization formed in 1925 along the lines of hardline nationalist groups in Europe, which aims to create an ethnic Hindu-majority state in India. For decades, VHP has campaigned to turn India into a Hindu nation and stands accused of orchestrating numerous attacks on Muslims and Christians in hundreds of riots in various parts of the country.)

References:

https://www.outlookindia.com/newswire/story/love-jihad-is-false-propaganda-bjp/857015

https://www.rediff.com/news/report/togadia-quits-vhp-after-his-nominee-loses-presidential-race/20180414.htm

https://vhp.org/orgnization/central-office-bearers-of-vishva-hindu-parishad/

https://archive.siasat.com/news/vhp-will-declare-gujarat-hindu-state-2015-togadia-417681/

https://www.jagran.com/jharkhand/ranchi-vhp-vinayak-rao-deshpande-said-conversion-of-scheduled-castes-and-tribes-are-going-under-foreign-conspiracy-20871030.html