Expressing serious concern over the recent incident of mass conversions in Uttar Pradesh, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Wednesday said the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) government in the state and the Centre must take firm steps to ensure that communal forces do not succeed in their mission to spread tension across the country.
"It is a serious matter. The Uttar Pradesh as well as the Centre must take this issue very seriously. The communal forces must be stopped from doing such things," Mayawati told the media outside the Parliament here.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Majid Memon also condemned the forceful act of religion conversion and said that such activities send wrong message to the country. "No one can be forced to convert religion. It is completely up to the wish of people. If anyone is doing it forcefully then the person should be punished. It sends wrong message to the country," he said.
Janata Dal (U) leader Ali Anwar echoing similar sentiments said that all this is being done by fooling people in the name of schemes and policies. Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Kalraj Mishra, however, termed the allegations as false and said that nobody was forced to covert the religion.
Earlier in the day, many lawmakers raised concerns in the Parliament about the conversion of some 200 people to Hinduism in a ceremony in Agra by groups linked to the BJP's ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Meanwhile, a lady who was forcibly converted into Hinduism said that they were completely unaware of the ceremony. "We were not aware of the fact that they are forcibly converting us from Muslims to Hindus. Earlier, when these people came, they asked us to dress properly and sit with them. When we went there, they asked all the men to don their skull caps and women to come in burkhas," she said in Uttar Pradesh's Agra city. "Then they started chanting some Hindu proverbs, they even asked us to repeat it after them. After that they informed us that you all have been converted into Hinduism now. Only then we came to know that these people have forcibly converted us," she added.
Bajrang Dal and Dharam Jagran Manch, the groups that performed the mass conversions, claimed that the families were originally Hindus and converted to Islam around 30 years ago.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}