Advani calls for national debate on religious conversion

Advani calls for national debate on religious conversion

Bhubaneswar:(visakeo) BJP leader and former Deputy Prime Minister, LK Advani has called for a national debate on religious conversion. "A free and honest democratic debate on the issue of religious conversions is the need of the hour," the fire brand BJP leader told reporters here.
Advani, who is NDA's Prime Ministerial candidate for coming Lok Sabha Polls, however said he has discussed the issue with religious leaders and bishops and all have supported the idea of a national debate and inter-religious dialogue. "However, a campaign against conversion cannot and must not become a campaign against any community," he said.

"In our country there can be no justification for violence or vandalism in the name of religion," said the BJP stalwart.

Responding to a query on the demand of Hindu religious leaders for a ban on conversions, Advani said he was against it.

"It's true that senior leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi, were strongly opposed to the idea of religious conversion. But nobody suggested a legal ban. The matter was also discussed and debated in the Constituent Assembly, but no legal ban was imposed," said Advani.

Conversion is banned in Indonesia, while in some other countries it is treated as a crime with provision of capital punishment, he reminded all. In India, few Congress-ruled states in the past have also enacted laws prohibiting conversion by inducement, said the former Union minister.

On the Centre threat to invoke Article 355 in Orissa and Karnataka, he said: "I will say that the two states have controlled the situation that was created. But, what happened in Nandigram?"

The senior leader pointed out to similar ethnic and communal clashes in parts of Assam, where non-Assamese people were targeted and attacked and in Maharashtra, where a single party targeted non-Marathi-speaking people, as the government watched.

Advani, who made an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas along with chief minister Naveen Patanik, said the devastation caused by Mahanadi and its tributaries is "tremendous".