The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has started preparing a list of missionaries who are in the country on a tourist visa.

The move comes days after the departure of American missionary Joseph W Cooper.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh workers had allegedly attacked Cooper at Kilimanoor near Thiruvananthapuram when he was returning after addressing a Bible convention.

While Cooper was recuperating in a private hospital, the Kerala police issued a notice to the missionary asking him to leave India for violating visa rules.

"Cooper was asked to leave India because we took pains to investigate that he was on a tourist visa to the country. Now we are preparing a list of several such Christian missionaries, especially from the United States, who are on tourist visas but go on an evangelisation spree. They are often key speakers at Bible conventions and religious gatherings," VHP's Kerala organising secretary Kummanam Rajasekharan told rediff.com

To begin with, the Kerala unit of the VHP has prepared a list of 50 missionaries.

"We know for certain that most of them have come to the state on tourist visas. We will submit our list of these illegal preachers to the central and the Kerala governments. We want the government to issue them quit India notices," the VHP leader said.

According to the VHP, a number of state governments and various governmental agencies have overlooked the preaching sessions of foreign evangelists. As per the Foreigners Registration Act, people visiting India can go sightseeing and visit relatives only. They are not allowed to engage in any forms of religious preaching.

Those coming for conferences, seminars and meetings should submit their speeches to the concerned officials, most often to the district collectors, according to the act.

Rajasekharan said that the VHP has already launched a countrywide campaign to find out how many missionaries, who are on tourist visas, are preaching and evangelising.

"The government has the authority to arrest all of them and prosecute them for violating our visa rules and creating communal disharmony," Rajasekharan said.

"Missionaries like Cooper have been slandering the Hindu religion and its traditions. Their mission is to convert poor Hindus to Christianity by enticing them with foreign money. We will not allow such underground conversion activities hereafter," the VHP leader said.