QUESTION: Do you think the anti-conversation bill will not be revoked? Do you have any hope of talk with government or ministers?

ANSWER: The government will not listen. There is an agenda behind it. They feel internally threatened and there are also narrow-minded fundamentalist groups are putting pressure on and the government. We had met the government officials and chief minister at the beginning. It does not augur well for the Democratic principles of the country. The poor people and the backward community are denied their right to choose. I think people have the right to eat what they want to eat and to dress up the way they want and practice the faith they want. Whether to accept faith or to renounce a faith is their fundamental human right. I think no government should legislate on it. Many hard-core people take very rigid positions without respecting the human basic rights of the fellow citizens of the country.

Bp Henry D’Souza
Bellary