Madhya Pradesh leader marks International Women’s Day by calling for the death penalty of those who convert women
Chief Minister Mohan Yadav makes the shocking statement at an event for Women's Day in Bhopal. Conversion becomes the equivalent of raping minors. Against the backdrop of “government apathy and indifference,” such remarks incite “the masses against the minorities,” laments Archbishop Machado of Bangalore, speaking to AsiaNews.
Bengaluru (AsiaNews) – During an event in Bhopal last Saturday (8 March) marking International Women's Day, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav announced plans to introduce legislation that would impose the death penalty for the conversion of girls.
Yadav, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Hindu nationalist party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said that his government wants to change the existing conversion law (already one of the harshest in the country) by applying the same penalty that is inflicted on people convicted of raping minors.
Later in the evening, the state government issued a statement saying that severe measures will be taken against anyone who uses force or lures people to marry or convert to their religion.
Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore, who is vice president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CCBI), expressed his dismay at such remarks to AsiaNews.
This statement “is sending shock waves among the Christians and other minorities in the country,” the prelate said. “While forceful conversion is to be condemned and also punished according to the legal provisions, the ways and means to track forceful or fraudulent conversions need to be ascertained and scrutinised,” he added.
In any event, “it is not easy to make forceful conversions in the country,” while “denying citizens the right to embrace lawfully the religion they are attracted to is also a denial of human rights, under the legal provisions of freedom of religion.”
For the archbishop, “It is assertions such as these, inciting the masses against minorities, that have to be taken note of and condemned too. Perhaps the government could book such inciters of violence for their hate speeches.”
Finally, “It is sad that security concerns among Christians and Church workers in northern and central States are rising, in the face of the government apathy and indifference.”
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