Rajnath calls for consensus on anti-conversion law

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 28

Batting for the BJP-led government’s proposal to ban religious conversions by law, Home Minister Rajnath Singh today called for political consensus on the anti-conversion Bill saying such a legislation would allay the reigning apprehensions around proselytisation.

“No country will tolerate the alteration of its demographic profile, but India has not cared about such changes on account of religious conversions. That’s because we are a secular, not a theocratic state. Ours is also the only country where demands for an anti-conversion law are coming from the majority, not the minority. Let us bring an anti-conversion law with consensus. That will be good for communal harmony,” said Rajnath Singh on a debate in the Lok Sabha on the budget for the Home Ministry.

The debate saw Congress’ Mallikarjun Kharge, SP’s Mulayam Singh Yadav and TMC’s Saugata Roy raise concerns around minority insecurity and attacks on minority institutions.

But Rajnath argued that states must themselves act against perpetrators of communal disharmony because law and order is their exclusive domain.