The chief minister of an Indian state has said he plans to amend a law to provide capital punishment for those engaged in religious conversions, increasing safety concerns among Christians and Church workers in central India. Source: UCA News.
Mohan Yadav, chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, told a public meeting in the state capital, Bhopal, on March 8 that he plans to amend the state’s existing anti-conversion law to punish those engaging in forced or fraudulent religious conversions with the death penalty.
He said the state has legal provision to punish those who rape minors with death penalty. In a similar line, the state will punish those engaged in religious conversion through fraudulent means with the death penalty.
“Religious conversion will not be tolerated,” Yadav asserted amid loud applause from the audience in the state, known as the hotbed of anti-Christian violence in the country.
Christian leaders say Mr Yadav’s announcement makes Christian life even more dangerous in a state where a Hindu-leaning government continues in power.
“It is like adding fuel to the fire,” says Jerry Paul, national president of the Sarva Isai Mahasabha (All Christian Federation) based in Bhopal.
He said Hindu activists, who support the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), “have been unleashing a wave of targeted attacks against our people and our institutions alleging religious conversion”.
Mr Yadav’s call for the death penalty for religious conversion “will only help embolden the Hindu hardliners to step up attacks against us…now we face greater risk for our safety and security,” Mr Paul said yesterday.
Madhya Pradesh is among 11 Indian states where anti-conversion laws have criminalised religious conversion through allurement, force, and coercion, among other means.
The state amended its more than five decades-old anti-conversion law in 2021 by adding harsher punishment, including jail terms of up to 10 years for violations.
Christians make up 0.27 per cent of more than 72 million people, and the majority, 80 per cent, are Hindu, including 21 per cent of indigenous people who generally follow animist religions.
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Concerns grow as Indian state plans death penalty for conversions (UCA News)
