Raipur:
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Dev Sai announced on Sunday that his government would introduce a new strict law to prevent religious adaptation of tribal people, and possibly others.
In an interview for the news agency PTI, Shri Sai also advocated the deviation of tribals – the removal of tribals from Scheduled Tribes category if they convert to another area – saying that it would stop the prosecution.
“India is a secular country. There is no problem in accepting any religion according to someone’s own belief and belief. But some people are converting people, especially the poor, by excusing and misleading them to provide education and other facilities, I think it is wrong and it should not happen.
Asked about presenting a new law against illegal conversion, Shri Sai said, “There is an existing law in Chhattisgarh against illegal religious conversion. It needs to be further strengthened. We are investigating what kind of law is there in other states. In the coming time, we will definitely introduce a strict law to stop religious conversion.” He did not say when the law would be introduced in the assembly.
On the demand for many tribal communities to be withdrawn, the Chief Minister said, “There is a provision in the Constitution that if people of Scheduled Castes (SC) are converted into other religions, they are deprived of the benefits given under the respective category.” “But this is not the case with the Scheduled Tribes (ST). If a tribal is converted into another religion, they continue to receive the benefits given to the ST community and even minorities,” he said.
The tribals of Bastar and Surguja have demanded that all tribals who had converted into Christianity or other religion were taken away from their ST position.
“Demand is being raised by the tribal society continuously. Karthik Oraon ji, who was an MP from Congress, said in Parliament that the tribals should not be entitled to the benefits given under the ST category. According to my knowledge, more than 250 MPs had submitted applications in Parliament in this regard.”
Shri Sai said that the tribal society is organizing meetings and signing that it should be signed.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is published by a syndicated feed.)
