Pakistanis condemn ‘state-sponsored’ conversions in India

• All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat (APHP) Information Secretary Mahesh Kumar says no space in Hinduism, secular India for conversions while former Christian MPA Michael Javed says forced conversions are wrong ‘no matter who is involved’

Hindus and Christians in Pakistan have flayed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in India for allegedly “state sponsoring” mass conversions of minority members in the Hindu-dominated state which claims to be secular in its outlook.

Ongoing alleged “forceful conversions” in India involving minorities including 160 million Muslims and Christians, have sparked strong outcry from India’s Congress-led opposition parties and human rights activists across the globe.

The government of Indian Prime Minister Narendera Modi is under fire for being mum over the issue as diehard Hindu nationalist organisations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) dub these conversions as “homecoming” for Christians and Muslims who, they reportedly claim, were once Hindu natives of the country.

‘CONVERSIONS FOR WORLDLY GAINS ARE UNACCEPATBALE’:

Hindus and Christians in Pakistan have taken strong exception to what they call “state-sponsored” conversions of minority members in India.

Talking to Pakistan Today, Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC) President Chela Ram Kewlani said, “We think the conversions in India are forceful and thus wrong. The Hindus there should not violate the minorities’ right to worship.”

Talking to Pakistan Today, All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat (APHP) Information Secretary Mahesh Kumar said the basis for change of religion in India and Pakistan is “worldly and not ideological”. Therefore, these conversions are “invalid”, he said.

“Whereas girls in Pakistan are converting mostly for love affairs, the same is happening in India for ration cards,” he said.

Seeing “misreporting” as a major factor in blowing the issue out of proportion, Kumar said “forceful conversions”, if any, were condemnable no matter who was involved – Hindus of India or Muslims of Pakistan.

“Religious extremists exist everywhere, be it Baal Thakray of Shev Sena or others,” he said.

Termed religion a “personal choice”, Mahesh said India was a secular country that equally belonged to all religious communities.

“Moreover, Hinduism has no space for preaching. You can practice Hinduism even by remaining Muslim,” said Mahesh.

Further, the APHP official said he had been studying Islamiat as a subject since his school days, adding, “No conversion for worldly gains was acceptable to God.”

Several Indian opposition leaders are trying to gain “political mileage” out of the “sensitive issue”, he added.

‘CONVERSIONS NOT JUSTIFIED ANYWHERE’:

Michael Javed, a former Christian lawmaker in Sindh Assembly, also flayed the BJP government in New Delhi for “sponsoring forced conversions of Muslims and at least 5,000 Christians”.

“This is happening under official patronage,” he said while talking to Pakistan Today, citing Modi’s “anti minority stance” during his tenure as chief minister of Indian Gujrat.

“As a minority leader I condemn the treatment being meted out to Muslims and Christians in India,” Javed said, accusing the Indian government of “violating the Liaquat-Nehru Pact of 1948 by extending its tacit support to hard line Hindu organisations”.

“Churches often come under arson attack in India and nuns therein have been sexually assaulted,” the Christian leader alleged.

He appealed to United States and European Union to take notice of forced conversions in India which he said were “not justified even if being carried out in Pakistan”.

The minority representatives were also dismayed over the “discriminatory attitude” of local rulers for leaving them out of the recently-formed committees aimed at electoral reforms and counter-terrorism measures.

AT LEAST 58 EMBRACE HINDUISM IN INDIA’S KERALA STATE: 

Moreover, it was reported that at least 58 Indians, most of them belonging to Christian families, embraced Hinduism at two temples in District Kottayam in the Indian state of Kerala under the initiative of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Christmas day.

At least 42 people of 20 families embraced Hinduism at the Puthiyakavu Devi temple in Ponkunnam while at another function at the Thirunakara Sri Krishna Swamy temple in Thirunakara, 16 were converted to Hinduism, VHP District President Balachandran Pillai reportedly said.

One of the recent converts was reportedly a Muslim.

Pillai said the converts had come from Vaikom, Kumarakkam and Kanjirapally.

It should be mentioned here that several such “conversion functions” were also held in other places in India, which claims to be a secular state.

A day earlier, 11 people embraced Hinduism near Kayamkulam in District Alappuzha in yet another case of conversion which has picked pace in the past one week.

A batch of 30 people hailing from the eight different families of scheduled caste Christians had reverted in the district on December 21.

Commenting on the conversion, provincial Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had said that the situation did not warrant government intervention.