The Vasundhara Raje government in Rajasthan and Governor Pratibha Patil seem to be headed for a face-off with the latter returning a Bill passed by the state Assembly seeking a ban on ‘‘forced religious conversion’’.Calling the Bill an attack on religious freedom, the Governor has sent it back to the government with the advice to take the President’s approval. The Raje government is, however, in no mood to relent. It has called a Cabinet meeting on Saturday where a decision to send the Bill back to the Governor is likely to be taken. The controversial Bill had been passed, despite stiff opposition, by the Assembly in the Budget session that ended last month.Condemned as draconian by the Opposition and social groups, the Bill makes conversion through allurement, force or fraudulent means a non-bailable offence and provides for punishment of upto five years simple imprisonment and a maximum fine of Rs 50,000 to the guilty. It also seeks to give the state the right to put behind bars any person accused of forcing a religious conversion, even before being tried.According to the provisions of the proposed law, even a deputy SP rank officer would be able to arrest any person who has ‘‘converted or attempted to convert a person through force, allurement or fraudulent means.’’ It is, however, applicable only in cases of conversion from the ‘‘original religion’’.This unclear definition of ‘‘original religion’ has, meanwhile, given rise to speculation that the proposed law is meant only to stop conversions from Hinduism. The Governor, while returning the Bill, has quoted the objections raised by the Opposition and the Christian organisations. Sources said the government is taking the opinion of legal experts on the objections raised by the Governor.Rajasthan Law Minister G S Tiwari said it was a routine process and the Government was not bound to follow the Governor’s remarks. ‘‘We will send back the Bill to the Governor after taking a Cabinet approval soon,’’ Tiwari said.
