Friday, Nov 01, 2002
Friday, Nov 01, 2002 |
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By Our Special Correspondent
Although the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, maintained that the Bill was only intended to prevent forcible conversions, her arguments in the course of the three-hour debate were against conversion itself. "Conversions create resentment among several sections and also inflame religious passions, leading to communal clashes." Invoking Mahatma Gandhi, Ms. Jayalalithaa sought to justify a ban on all conversions. Gandhiji, she said, had stated that conversions were harmful and that if he had the power to legislate, he would have stopped all proselytising activities. She claimed that conversions only led to the isolation of the converted. Also, casteist feelings remained even after conversion. At the end of the heated debate, the Opposition parties pressed for a division of votes, causing embarrassment to the minority members of the ruling party and its ally, the breakaway Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) group. However, the Opposition lost the battle by 140 votes to 73. Ms. Jayalalithaa, while claiming that the Bill was meant to prevent exploitation of the depressed classes, insisted that the ruling AIADMK would not move away from its Dravidian moorings. In one of the fiercest and lengthiest debates in the Assembly yet, the Opposition members sparred with the Treasury benches, insisting that the Bill would create communal disharmony. Soon after the Congress floor leader, S.R. Balasubramaniam, moved the disapproval motion against the ordinance on forcible conversions, the DMK whip, E. Pugazhendi, asked the Chief Minister to name the "anti-socials and vested interests trying to exploit the depressed classes" as mentioned in the explanatory note to the Bill. As the Bill banned conversions through the grant of "material benefits either monetary or otherwise", even the reservation and other benefits offered by the State Government to the Dalits, which ensured their continuance in Hinduism, could be construed as illegal and Ministers could be proceeded against. When Anwar Rhazza (AIADMK) pointed out that similar laws existed in the Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh as well, the Congress and the Treasury benches were locked in a heated wrangle. While Mr. Balasubramaniam retorted that not a single case had been filed under the law in Madhya Pradesh, Ms. Jayalalithaa asked why the Congress regime had not repealed the Act yet. The Congress member, K. Jayakumar, charged that the AIADMK regime's intention was only to "toe the Hindutva line and protect a particular community". By fixing a higher penalty for converting the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, the legislation demeaned the Dalit community, the CPI MLA, G. Palanichamy, alleged. But Ms. Jayalalithaa insisted that a higher penalty had been fixed only because the Dalits were a "vulnerable section". When the CPI (M) woman member, Balabarathi, who mounted a severe attack on the Bill, referred to the inflammatory remarks made by Hindu outfit leaders in Madurai recently, the Speaker, K. Kalimuthu, expunged her remarks on the ground that it would affect communal harmony. The Bill also triggered a face-off between the DMK and the BJP — both constituents of the NDA Government at the Centre — when the BJP member, H. Raja, criticised the perceived anti-Hindu remarks made recently by the DMK president, M. Karunanidhi. The Assembly also adopted a Bill banning the ritual of burying drugged children alive and retrieving them a minute later to propitiate deities, practised in southern parts of the State.
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