Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel on Wednesday told Gujarat Assembly that as many as 1,735 Hindus in Gujarat have sought State Government’s permission to convert to another religion in last five years.
The Chief Minister told the House that total 1,838 people from different parts of the State had applied for conversion. Out of these, the Home Department gave its consent to 878 applicants of different religions, she added.
Replying to a Congress MlA Tejashree Patel’s written query seeking details of applications received by the state Home Department from citizens, who wish to embrace another religion Patel said that of total 1,838 applicants, the highest number of applications -1,735 - came from Hindus, followed by Muslims (57), Christians (42) and Parsis (4). No one from Sikh and Buddhist community applied for conversion during that period, she informed.
Highest number of applications from Hindus were received from Surat district (515), followed by Rajkot (388) and Porbandar (325).
The Congress MlA Tejashree Patel said that the State Government should take this matter seriously and conduct a survey through a committee to find out why Hindus in such a large number want to change their religion.
Talking about ruling BJP’s view on the conversion issue Gujarat BJP president and senior minister Vijay Rupani said that his party believes that religious conversion must be stopped.