A Catholic leader in India’s Madhya Pradesh State sees a political ploy in a government move to criminalize interfai-th marriages that involve reli-gious conversion.
Archbishop Leo Cornelio of Bhopal, based in the state capital, said the state government’s proposal aims to appease the majority Hindu community rather than address any real issue.
Leaders of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which runs the state government, said that during the legislative session starting in December they plan to make legal provisions to stop Hindus from becoming Muslims and Christians for marriage.
State chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan accused Christian missionaries of converting indigenous people while addressing gatherings in Umaria and Barwani districts, which are dominated by indigenous people.
He also advised missionaries not to offer their services in the hope of converting beneficiaries to their faith.
Madhya Pradesh is among states with strict laws to check religious conver-sion through allurement or force as punishable offenses. The law, ironically named the Freedom of Religion act, was enacted in the state in 1967.
The government has not yet released the bill’s draft to reveal the quantum of punishment and other details. It is also unclear if the government plans to amend the Freedom of Religion Act or to enact a separate law.
Rameshwar Sharma, the state assembly’s speaker, said the government plans to scrap quota benefits meant for women of lower castes or tribal people if they changed their religion and married Muslims or Christians, media reports said.
Archbishop Cornelio told UCA News on Nov. 30 that the Catholic Church is not involved in conversion “through force or allurement” and it “was wrong to paint” the Church’s charitable work as a facade for conversion.
“If the allegation was true, the Christian population would be much more than what it is today,” he asserted.