By Jeremy Reynalds, Senior Correspondent, ASSIST News Service (jeremyreynalds@gmail.com)
INDIA (ANS -- October 7, 2015) -- Two
members of India’s ruling BJP party, one in the Lower and one in the
Upper House of the national Parliament, plan to introduce a Private
Members’ Bill, each in their respective House, to introduce a national
law against conversion from Hinduism.
According to a story by World Watch Monitor (WWM), that would then force a debate in the Parliament.
The
MP in the Upper House, Tarun Vijay, a former journalist, represents
Dehra Dun in Uttarakhand (formerly Uttaranchal) state on the northern
border of India, between Himachal Pradesh and Nepal.
Himachal Pradesh has already
introduced a Freedom of Religion Act, which WWM said seems harmless in
name but attempts to regulate freedom to change one’s religion.
In an interview with The
Tribune, he said the recently released Indian “religion” census had
indicated that, “For the first time, the population of Hindus has been
reported to be less than 80 per cent. We have to take measures to arrest
the decline. It is very important to keep the Hindus in majority in the
country.”
He continued, “My argument is
that religion must remain a matter of personal choice. But in India, it
has become a political tool in the hands of foreign powers, who are
targeting Hindus to fragment our nation again on communal lines. This
has to be resisted in national interest and in the interest of all
minorities in India.”
Vijay is reported to have
said his proposed bill will advocate for a “non-bailable warrant to be
issued against the person found engaged in the act (of conversion),
along with a ten-year jail (sentence).”
WWM reported Vijay said, “For
the first time, the population of Hindus has been reported to be less
than 80 per cent. We have to take measures to arrest the decline. It is
very important to keep the Hindus in majority in the country.”
The MP in the Lower House,
Yogi Adityanath, is a senior BJP legislator, who became head priest at a
well-known Hindu temple in Gorakhpur after the death in Sept. 2014 of
his “spiritual father.”
He is also the founder of the
Hindu Yuva Vahini, a social, cultural and nationalist group of youths
who seek to provide a right-wing Hindu platform.
In June, Adityanath said that
that those opposing yoga and surya namaskar, a Hindu salutation to the
sun god within yoga, “should leave India or drown themselves in the
ocean.”
On June 21, the first-ever
International Yoga Day was observed from New Delhi to New York. In
yoga’s birthplace, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself led a
yoga session attended by 37,000 people in the heart of the Indian
capital.
The date was also a Sunday,
which is, WWM said, why several of India’s Christian organizations
voiced their opposition – not to yoga itself, but to another big
national event scheduled on a Christian holy day.
“Statements such as that
(about leaving India or drowning in the ocean) make minority communities
suspicious about the intentions of this government,” a statement from
the National Christian Council of India said at the time.
It continued, “We urge the Government to be sensitive to the different cultural and religious practices in our country.”
The two Private Members’
Bills come shortly after a sixth Indian state has started the process of
introducing an “anti-conversion law.”
These moves also come as
Hindu nationalism has come under criticism from the Muslim population of
India, in the aftermath of last week’s lynching of a Muslim in Uttar
Pradesh, who had allegedly been storing and consuming beef at his home.
A total ban on beef was
enforced in the west Indian state of Maharashtra in March, outlawing the
slaughter, consumption or even possession of beef. A number of other
states tightened their laws, including Uttar Pradesh.
At the time, WWM reported,
commentators suggested the ban would hit minorities hardest. India is a
secular nation where almost half the population eats beef, though most
of the majority Hindus abstain, believing that cows are sacred. Some
Hindus do eat beef, as well as Dalits (16.6% of the population), Muslims
(14.88%), Christians (2.3%) and Sikhs (1.9%).
“This ban is an insult to the poor and the Dalits,” said Rev.
Manohar Chandra Prasad, a pastor of the Church of South India (CSI).
Now, after the lynching of
the man in Uttar Pradesh state, the WWM said the BBC reported the
village’s headman, Ahsaan Chaudary, said “the situation now is such that
a Muslim villager can’t buy a cow and bring it home. We will be
attacked or may even be killed. It is easy to accuse that the cow is
being taken to be slaughtered.”
For more information visit www.worldwatchmonitor.org
Photo captions: 1) The Dalits of India still do the most menial of jobs (AFP). 2) Jeremy and Elma Reynalds.
About the writer: Jeremy
Reynalds is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, a
freelance writer and also the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New
Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, www.joyjunction.org. He
has a master's degree in communication from the University of New
Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in
Los Angeles. His newest book is "From Destitute to Ph.D." Additional
details on "From Destitute to Ph.D." are available at www.myhomelessjourney.com. Reynalds lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife, Elma. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@gmail.com.
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