Tirupati, India - Senior BJP leader L K Advani today said there has been a spurt in systematic religious conversions in the past few years and national and state level legislations should be introduced to prohibit conversions through inducement or coercion.
"We strongly condemn the campaign of proselytisation which poses a grave threat to Hindu society. We demand stern action against those who indulge in such activities," he told reporters in the temple town before leaving for electioneering in Tamil Nadu, rounding off the first leg of his 'Bharat Suraksha Yatra' in Andhra Pradesh covering Anantapur and Chitoor districts in backward Railseema region.
Advani also offered prayers at Tirumala abode of Lord Venketeswaram.
Chosing the famous pilgrim centre to raise the issue of, what he called, "organised foreign funded conversion campaign by evangelical groups", he said such a campaign is a threat to national integration and to the Hindu society.
"It is bad enough that religious conversions are conducted in a systematic manner through inducements and coercions. But such activites acquire an extra edge of ominousness when they are facilitated by foreign funded organisations ostensibly under the garb of social service for poor and under-privileged families," the BJP leader said.
According to Advani, although freedom of faith was the fundamental right of every citizen, it could not be allowed to become a license for a sustained foreign-funded campaign for proselytisation targetted at scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and poor people belonging to other classes.
He said it was astounding that when Hindu organisations protested against the gross abuse of freedom of faith they were dubbed "communal, anti-minority and anti-secular".
"The BJP will not tolerate such perversion of secularism. We will raise our voice strongly in favour of a national as well as state-level legislation prohibiting religious conversions through inducements or coercion," Advani said.
The BJP leader said there was a big spurt in activities of various evangelical organisations engaged in religious conversions in Andhra Pradesh in a systematic manner ever since the advent of UPA at the Centre and the Congress Government in the State.
Pointing out that religious conversions are altogether banned in several countries and even voluntary change of religion in Islamic countries invites severe punishment, Advani said such intolerance was unthinkable in India.
However, tolerance on the part of Hindus should not be exploited for the purpose of mass scale proselytisation, he said.