The Hindu : Bill on religion: Gujarat Governor consulting AG

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 04, 2003

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Bill on religion: Gujarat Governor consulting AG

By Manas Dasgupta

GANDHINAGAR April 3. The Gujarat Governor, Sunder Singh Bhandari, who is yet to give his consent to the Freedom of the Religion Bill, has apparently not accepted the plea of the Leader of the Opposition, Amarsinh Chaudhary (Congress), that he should return all the seven bills, which were recently passed when the State Assembly was "not in order.'' The Governor has given his assent to the other six bills.

The bills were slated to come up in the House the same day the former Minister of State for Home and Revenue, Haren Pandya, was murdered in Ahmedabad, and as the Opposition created a furore in the Assembly demanding a statement from the Government on the killing, the treasury benches adopted all the seven bills in less than 35 minutes before adjourning the House for the day.

Raj Bhavan sources said the Governor had held up the Religious Conversion Bill to seek legal opinion on the issue and was consulting the Advocate-General whether the measure was in commensurate with the constitutional provision of freedom to practise any religion.

Though the official spokesmen of the State Government and the ruling BJP said they did not know why the Governor was delaying the signing the of bill when he had given his assent to other six bills passed by the House in similar conditions, party sources said it could be on the advice of the BJP's central party leadership.

A section of the central party leadership is also believed to have formed the opinion that some of the provisions of the bill, particularly giving "autocratic powers" to the district magistrates, who in Gujarat are also the district collectors serving under the State Government, may not stand the scrutiny of law.

The Gujarat bill is harsher than a similar one adopted by the Tamil Nadu Assembly, which only provides for giving "information'' to the district magistrate concerned about any religious conversion and does not seek his prior approval. Whereas, even a genuine religious conversion in Gujarat would depend on the whims of the district collectors.

Viewed specifically as a measure against the minorities, the bill has also caused considerable resentment among the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, the most vulnerable sections going for religious conversions. While some Christian leaders had called on the Governor requesting him not to give his assent to the bill, which they felt was specifically targeted against the Christian missionaries working in the tribal-dominated districts of Surat and Dangs in south Gujarat, a large number of organisations of the Backward Classes held week-long demonstrations at various parts of the State last week opposing the bill.

The Backward Classes organisations were of the opinion that the measure would take away their right to convert to Buddhism, the path shown by Babasaheb Ambedkar, if they felt that they were not getting justice from the Hindu leadership.

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