Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Conversion ordinance bold, timely: Hindu leaders

By R. Ilangovan

Madurai Oct. 20. In a sharp reaction to the spontaneous consolidation of minorities and secularists against the Tamil Nadu Government Prohibition of Forcible Conversion of Religion Ordinance, Hindu leaders and heads of various mutts have extended `wholehearted' support to the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, for taking a "bold and timely" step to stop conversions in the State.

Participants at the one-day `Anti-conversion and Hindu awakening' conference, organised by the Hindu Awareness Movement here today, called upon their cadres to "eschew casteist differences and untouchability'' so that a united Hindu society could be formed to counter the "alien threats to Hinduism'' and issued a stern warning to political parties opposing the ordinance under the "garb of secularism". "The Hindu voters will reject them in future,'' they said.

The conference urged the members of the Assembly to set aside their political differences and accord legislative sanction to the ordinance and wanted other States to promulgate a similar ordinance. The concessions that are being extended to minority institutions should be provided to the Hindu institutions too, it said.

The meet called for stringent action against minority organisations, which threaten to close down their institutions and urged the Hindu leaders and mutt heads to take steps to form village-level committees for eradicating untouchability.

`Crime against society'

The VHP's international general secretary, Praveen Togadia, in his special address, said the Tamil Nadu Government's ordinance was not against any religion. Neither Buddhists nor Parsees opposed it. Calling the conversion a crime against society, the VHP leader said it would `denationalise Bharath.'

Mr.Togadia said the Supreme Court, in its historical ruling in 1977 in the Stanislaus vs. State of Madhya Pradesh case, held that the right to propagate one's religion did not include the right to convert.

The Hindu Munnani's founder-leader, Rama Gopalan, justified the need for the ordinance. Each Hindu leader and mutt should adopt a taluk to achieve the objective of forming `conversion-free' zones.

The conference was attended by a large number of cadres and senior leaders from the State's Sangh Parivar outfits, including the VHP, the RSS and the Hindu Munnani and the BJP.

The heads of the mutts from Madurai, Thiruvaduthurai, Perur, Dharmapuram, Gowmaramadam and Vadalur endorsed the decision of the conference.

The Union Minister, Pon.Radhakrishnan, C.P.Radhakrishnan, MP, and H.Raja, MLA, participated. Swami Dayananda Saraswathi of Anaikatti Aarshavidya Gurukul, presided.

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