PM for debate on conversions

AHWA, JAN 10: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today called for a national debate on religious conversions and the developments in Dan...

AHWA, JAN 10: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today called for a national debate on religious conversions and the developments in Dangs while coming down on the State Government for allowing the Hindu Jagran Manch HJM to hold a rally on Christmas Day. Later, talking to a delegation of the Church of North India at the circuit house here Vajpayee said that if Christian missionaries continued religious conversions, the Government cannot stop reconversions. 8220;If you allow conversions, then the reconversions cannot be stopped,8221; he said.

Commenting on the communal flare-up, he said the situation could have been averted had the government barred the Manch from holding the rally. At the same time, he decried the Congress8217; demand to sack the State Government if the attacks did not stop.

8220;Heads of all religions should come together and try to build a consensus that will be in the interest of all8221;, he said, expressing shock over the religious conflicts. 8220;We are a secular country. The secularism practisedby us never had a negative connotation,8221; he remarked.

Vajpayee ruled out a ban on the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, announced the revival of the Minorities Commission in Gujarat and asked the Opposition not to indulge in the 8220;dangerous game of trying to gain political mileage8221; from the incidents.

Quoting a memorandum submitted by Sarvodaya leaders Chunibhai Vaidya and Ghelabhai Nayak, who held conversions responsible for the trouble in the State, he pointed out that the Constituent Assembly had held propagation of religion and conversion as an individual8217;s right. 8220;Use of unfair means to ensure conversions is decried,8221; he said. 8220;The issue of conversions never cropped up in the last 50 years but it has suddenly become a major issue in Dangs,8221; he remarked.

He dubbed as 8220;politically motivated8221;, Congress president Sonia Gandhi8217;s statement that if attacks do not stop, the Gujarat Government should be dismissed. Sonia8217;s allegation that 8220;the attackers had the blessings of asection of the Gujarat Government8221; was also rejected by Vajpayee. 8220;There is no constitutional breakdown to warrant imposition of President8217;s Rule,8221; he said.

Expressing satisfaction over the steps taken by the State Government in the aftermath of the December 25 incidents, he said more care should have been taken to prevent the happenings. 8220;It could have been avoided,8221; he said.

HJM unswayed; Gujarat counsel quits

Story continues below this ad

Vajpayee8217;s appeal to villagers 8212; 8220;all communities should join hands to restore the places of worship that have been damaged8221; 8212; fell on deaf ears on Sunday with a sharp rejoinder to the suggestion coming in even as the prime minister sat down to lunch. 8220;We will not pool in a single paisa for the purpose.8221; Hindu Jagran Manch Dangs president Janubhai Pawar said.

What if some Hindus agreed to implement the prime minister8217;s suggestion? Pawar said the Manch wouldn8217;t allow them to do so. In a memorandum submitted to Vajpayee, he demanded that 8220;missionaries be thrown out ofthe district8221;, that missionary institutes be taken over by the government and that benefits to converted tribals be disallowed. The memorandum also urged the government to take away land belonging to converted tribals. And the prime minister was simply making a politically correct statement, Pawar said when asked why he was disregarding Vajpayee8217;s recommendation.

Fali S Nariman, noted lawyer and counsel for Gujarat in the Narmada dam dispute case in the Supreme Court is learnt to have resigned in protest against the continuing attacks on Christians in the state. Nariman, who has been arguing the case for Gujarat since 1994, has voiced his anguish at the state government8217;s inability to ensure the protection of the minorities.