North East News Agency

ALARMED over anti-conversion bill, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio has send a letter to President A P J Abdul Kalam. The Nagaland Chief Minister has termed the bill, passed on April 7 by Rajasthan Legislative Assembly to ban forced conversions, as a direct assault on the secular character of India. According to Mr. Rio, the bill called as the freedom of religion bill deserved to be condemned in the strongest terms by all those who value secularism.

In a letter addressed to the President Mr. Rio stated that he was ‘deeply disturbed’ by the passing of the Rajasthan Freedom of Religion Bill and expressed the view that the bill was a complete misnomer, “because its main objective appears to be not to secure freedom of religion for the people, but to take away their fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression, freedom to profess, practice and propagate religion by their choice, as guaranteed by the Constitution of India”.

The Nagaland Chief Minister felt that the bill was mainly targeted at Christian Missionaries, who are doing commendable social services to the Dalits and other poorer sections of the society.

“In fact, there is no question of Christian Missionaries converting people to Christianity through force, allurement or fraudulent means”, Rio claimed in his letter. The Nagaland Chief Minister is apprehensive that the Rajasthan bill might be used for harassing the Christian Missionaries. He requested the President to intervene in order to see that the basic ideal of secularism enshrined in the constitution is not negated or diluted in any manner, claiming that no such instances have been heard of and “if there be any, it can be dealt with under the existing provisions of the Indian Penal Code”. Like the Nagaland Chief Minister, other persons have also lodged their protests against the bill.

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