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Amid House logjam, government, BJP and RSS leaders go into huddle

Opposition protests over conversions taking a fiercer turn, upsetting govt plans

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As the Opposition intensified its attack on the government over religious conversions, senior ministers, BJP brass and some RSS leaders met here late on Monday night.

The government and the RSS have been in sync on favouring an anti-conversion bill. The issue was discussed at the meeting held at Nitin Gadkari's residence. The meeting was attended by union ministers Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Gadkari, BJP chief Amit Shah and RSS leader Bhaiyyaji Joshi. Sources said it was a periodical coordination meeting between the BJP leaders and the party's ideological mentor.

The comments made by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and VHP leaders have added fuel to the Opposition charge that the government was backing the hard liners.

The Winter Session of Parliament seems set to end on a cold note on Tuesday with Opposition protests over religious conversions taking a fiercer turn, upsetting the government's plans of getting the pro-reform insurance bill passed.

Amidst the furore over the conversions issue in Lok Sabha, RJD's Pappu Yadav, who was standing with other Opposition MPs in the well of the House, tore a newspaper and threw its pieces. Some of the bits fell on the podium. Deputy speaker M Thambidurai, who was in the Chair, adjourned the proceedings for ten minutes. "I strongly object to the manner in which Rajesh Ranjan (Pappu Yadav) threw papers at me. It is very bad. You have to respect the Chair," he said.

Yadav later said he did not throw the papers at the Chair and apologised.

He was among the TMC, CPM, RJD and AAP members who had trooped into the well and were shouting slogans demanding that prime minister Narendra Modi make a statement on the conversion issue. The Opposition has been making a similar demand in Rajya Sabha, where business has been paralysed for over a week.

The Opposition in the Upper House managed to stall passage of the bill to raise the FDI cap in the insurance sector to 49 per cent from 26 per cent, which has the support of the ruling BJP and the main Opposition party, Congress. The government could explore the ordinance route. Though government sources did not divulge the strategy for the bill if it did not get passed in the House, they said "all options" were being considered.

Sources said there has been enough precedence of Congress-led governments taking the ordinance route on even crucial issues like the food security bill.

The government, which is dismissive of the Opposition charge, is of the view that if it was not conversions, it would have taken up some other issue. Senior ministers in the government agree with external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj's reported remarks about the need for greater tolerance.

"The four concepts of democracy, diversity, non-violence and tolerance should become an integral part of our toolbox for solving present-day conflicts..... They have the power to dull the sharp edges of ethnic nationalism and religious chauvinism which fuel most of the conflict of the world today," Swaraj had said.

In Lok Sabha, parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu said, "Government is nowhere in the picture, the party is nowhere in the picture. If any individual does it, action has to be taken by the government...Government is not involved and does not support conversion or re-conversion."

On Congress member KC Venugopal raising the issue of conversions in Kerala, Naidu said action had to be taken by the Congress-led governnment in the state. Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said "every day such incidents.... of ghar wapsi (homecoming) were happening in various states... Government is indirectly supporting it." This led to an uproar.

The Opposition accused government of supporting conversions and remaining silent on poll promises like bringing back black money and providing employment opportunities.

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