Gandhinagar: The Gujarat Assembly on Tuesday passed by voice vote, amid Congress protests, a Bill to amend the law to allow conversions among different sects of the same faith as well as among Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

The Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill 2006 also clarified the meaning of "forced conversion" and to whom the anti-conversion law would apply.

The amendment said: "To convert means to make one person renounce one religion and adopt another; but does not include one who renounces one denomination and adopts another denomination of the same religion."

This implies there will be no government intervention in case of conversion from Shia to Sunni or from Protestant to Catholic.

Significantly, the same yardstick will apply to conversions among Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism as the Government considers these religions as a whole.

Under the amendment to the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act of 2003, a person does not have to seek permission to convert from one sect to another of the same religion.

The Opposition protested against the Bill, which considers Buddhism and Jainism as being part of Hinduism.

The anti-conversion law was passed by the House in 2003, but was not implemented as the Government could not frame rules. Under the law, Hindus could not convert to Islam or Christianity without permission from authorities.

"Not sub-branches"

Opposition leader Arjun Modhvaida said that under Article 25 of the Constitution, the Government could not club Jains and Buddhists with Hindus. Buddhism and Jainism were not sub-branches of Hinduism, he said and accused the Government of trying to play politics on the issue. — PTI

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail