Dalai Lama Meets Hindu Militants at Kumbh Mela

ALLAHABAD, India, Jan. 25 (AP) -- The Dalai Lama joined the leaders of India's Hindu nationalist movement Thursday in condemning religious conversion, propelling him into one of the hottest religious controversies in South Asia.

"Whether Hindu or Muslim or Christian, whoever tries to convert, it's wrong, not good," the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader said after a lunch meeting with top Hindu priests and members of an influential group that wants India to be a Hindu country.

Leaders of the World Hindu Council, which is linked with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's party, invited the Dalai Lama to discussions on conversion in the midst of the Kumbh Mela, a 43-day Hindu festival taking place on the banks of the Ganges River here.

He met with them before joining senior Hindu priests in a ceremony of prayers to the river, where tens of millions of Hindus have gathered for the festival, seeking to wash away their sins in the waters they believe are the most sacred in the world.

After the meeting, the Dalai Lama and others signed a joint statement saying: "We oppose conversions by any religious tradition using various methods of enticement."

Members of the Hindu Council have repeatedly criticized Muslims, India's largest minority, and Christians, calling on the government to oust missionaries and demanding Muslims and Christians revere Hindu gods. The Hindu Council believes that all Indians as a matter of national identity should be Hindu.

Christians constitute 2.3 percent of India's 1 billion population, or 23 million people. The nation has the world's second-largest population of Muslims, 140 million, after Indonesia.

The Hindu Council's general secretary, Ashok Singhal, told reporters, "Buddhism, Hinduism and other non-aggressive religions have to unite to douse Islam...an aggressive religion."

"I always believe it's safer and better and reasonable to keep one's own tradition or belief," the Dalai Lama told reporters during a break in the meetings. "To change it is not proper, it's much safer to follow one's own religion."

"We Buddhists consider Hindus and Buddhists like twin brothers and sisters," the Dalai Lama added.

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