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KOLKATA: India's ruling party has intervened in
a bid to block a move by one of the country's states to
make it more difficult to change religions.
The Congress Party has advised the country's president,
Pratibha Patil, not to sign on Madhya Pradesh's
amendment to a freedom of religion act that would make
anyone in the state wanting to convert to seek
permission from the local administrative authority and
police.
Christian leaders say the proposal in the state ruled by
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Hindu nationalist
party, largely aims to curb conversion to Christianity
by the state's animists, who believe that souls or
spirits exist not only in humans and animals but also in
plants and rocks.
Religious conversion is a sensitive issue in
Hindu-majority India, where Christian missionaries have
been accused by the BJP of "forcing" Hindus to convert.
Local media reported last week that as the Madhya
Pradesh governor forwarded the bill to Ms Patil's
predecessor for approval.
No action was taken until recently when the home
ministry advised her not to sign it, claiming the
amendment could be misused to harass people. Mrs Patil
is yet to act on the amendment.
The original Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act 1968
makes it mandatory for a new convert to file a legal
affidavit to the administrative authority declaring that
he or she was not under any pressure to convert.
The amendment says a conversion (read 'baptism') can
take place only after the district magistrate gives
permission, and the local police chief certifies that no
force is involved in the proposed conversion, as if the
common man in India is bereft of all powers of
discernment! It was passed by the state's assembly in
2006 and sent to the president in 2007. The country's
solicitor general, Goolam E Vahanvati, said at the time
the amendment did not conform with India's constitution.
Local media have reported the home minister, P
Chidambaram, who is known for his secular views, is
behind the Congress Party's move against the amendment.
In the states of Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Chhattisgarh,
Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, laws preventing forced
conversion are in place and anyone found violating them
can face up to three years in jail and a fine.
In Karnataka, where the BJP-led government recently came
to power, a similar amendment to the one proposed in
Madhya Pradesh is to be adopted if the president
approves it.
Christian leaders in Madhya Pradesh say they had been
worried about the amendment and are happy the home
office has intervened.
"If the amendments turned into law it was going to have
a terrible effect on minority Christians, with countless
innocent ordinary Christians and church workers facing
longer jail terms and other harassments," Anand
Muttungal, the spokesman for the Catholic Bishop's
Council of Madhya Pradesh, said.
"Christians are already a persecuted community in Madhya
Pradesh. In the past 10 years hundreds of church workers
were arrested on charges of forcible conversion. In many
cases they were beaten up by Hindu activists before
being handed over to police. Interestingly, in all cases
the court found the church workers innocent, but in many
cases they had to spend months in jail," he said.
John Dayal, the secretary general of All India Christian
Council, said the BJP often tries to empower police to
make them act against pastors and church workers.
"It is quite obvious that the desire [to impose such
laws] is to appease Hindutva sentiments and to empower
district and local police and civil officials to curtail
the freedom of faith of the local people," said Mr Dayal.
"Freedom of faith is a fundamental right, and
government's permission is not required to pray singly
or as a group in your own house or in a formal church
building. Certainly, no prior permission is required to
practise or change one's faith.
"The Indian Constitution gives us full rights to
profess, practise and propagate our faith, and it gives
the right to every citizen to chose or changes his
religion.”
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