Bengaluru: Asserting that his party was against conversions and re-conversions, BJP president Amit Shah has sought the support of the “secular parties” on bringing an anti-conversion bill.
“We are against forceful conversions and re-conversions. Neither our party nor the NDA government is involved in the ‘ghar wapsi’ (return home) programme. We seek support of the so-called secular parties for a strong legislation against conversions,” Shah told reporters here.
Regretting that no secular party had come forward to introduce the anti-conversion bill, he said the Bharatiya Janata Party was in favour of such a law to check conversions.
“There is a need for a strong anti-conversion law to prevent conversions by anyone, be they Christians, Muslims or Hindus,” Shah said while appealing to all parties to support the government in enacting a law against conversions.
Noting that the BJP had nothing to do with the ‘ghar wapsi’ programme of some Hindu right-wing groups, Shah said his party did not believe in such conversions.
The Dharma Jagran Samiti was allegedly behind the forceful conversions of about 250 Muslim families to Hinduism in Uttar Pradesh in November.
Later, BJP sources said that the Dharma Jagran Samiti had been told to refrain from such conversions on advice from the Narendra Modi government this week.
Law possible: Bishop
There can be a law to prevent forced conversions but there should not be a blanket law against conversions per se, because it would impede the freedom to choose religion, Bishop Alwyn Barreto from Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg diocese said yesterday.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a book release event, Barreto said: “There can be a law against (conversion by) force, but there cannot be a law against conversion, because my freedom is gone... Tomorrow I might have to become a Hindu, so I have to have the right to change.”
Barreto, who hails from Goa, further batted against forced conversion saying compulsion should be eliminated from the concept of conversion, whether it is to Christianity, Islam or Hinduism and that people’s choice to join or leave Christianity should be respected.
“Some people want to become Hindus, they are welcome. People are leaving the Catholic church, we have no problem. They are coming back they are most welcome. But there should not be forced conversion,” Barretto said.
He also said that there were no ghar-wapsi episodes in the Sindhudurg diocese apart from a few individuals who left the Church.
IANS
