At a time when the BJP is pitching for an Anti-conversion Bill, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Tuesday said that existing laws regarding conversion are sufficient. However, at the same time, he defended the Centre over the conversion row.
Paswan, who is the national president of the NDA ally lok Jan Shakti Party, asserted that neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor his Government ever engaged in such issues.
“Neither the Government is saying any such thing nor the Prime Minister has talked about issues like Ram Temple, Article 370, Ghar Wapsi or conversion ever since came to power,” he said.
Paswan’s reaction came in the backdrop of the BJP pushing for an Anti-conversion Bill in the wake of controversies triggered by some Hindutva groups. On lJP’s stand on conversions and whether it favours bringing an anti-conversion law, Paswan said that according to Article 25, everybody has a right of free profession, practice and propagation of religion and there are also provisions to check conversion by coercion and allurement, if any.
“lJP’s stand is that the existing laws in this matter are sufficient... Government also says the same thing. As long as there is no consensus, it will not bring it (anti-conversion law). Our party’s view is that the existing law and sections in law are very clear about it,” Paswan said at a Press conference. Paswan was a Minister in the Vajpayee Government and thereafter, was in the UPA-I regime. He returned to the NDA fold just ahead of lok Sabha polls last year.
Responding to questions about controversial statements on conversions and others being made by some BJP members and related organisations, Paswan said the PM had, in fact, expressed annoyance when a leader of his party (Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti) had said something and asked his party leaders not to dilute the agenda of development of the NDA.
Earlier, the Union Consumer Affairs Minister questioned the “secular pitch” of the Congress and other parties saying why they did not support his demand for a Muslim Chief Minister in Bihar after the fractured mandate of February 2005 State Assembly elections.
Paswan, who hails from Bihar and was also part of the Janata Dal coalition Government led by late VP Singh, also dismissed the coming together of Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal (U), RJD, JD(S) and other splinter groups of Janata Parivar and compared it with “snakes and scorpions coming together in a flood situation”.
Dismissing the attempts by the Janata Parivar splinter groups to come under one umbrella, he said, “This grand alliance is not going to be a reality. The real test will come when a decision will be taken as who will head it. I was part of the late VP Singh Government and I know all of them.”
Paswan, however, felt that JD(U) of Nitish Kumar and RJD of lalu Prasad will come together as Kumar “fell from top to bottom” the day he parted ways with BJP in Bihar.