{"id":11769,"date":"2006-09-15T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-15T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2006\/09\/15\/indian-state-rejects-opposition-to-conversion-law\/"},"modified":"2006-09-15T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-09-15T12:00:00","slug":"indian-state-rejects-opposition-to-conversion-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2006\/09\/15\/indian-state-rejects-opposition-to-conversion-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian State Rejects Opposition to Conversion Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"source\"><a HREF=\"http:\/\/www.alertnet.org\/thenews\/newsdesk\/DEL40862.htm\">www.alertnet.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"summary\">RAIPUR, INDIA, September 12, 2006: A Hindu nationalist-led government in central India said on Monday it will proceed with a plan to impose strict punishment on anyone found guilty of forcing religious conversions. The decision by the government of Chhattisgarh state to give more teeth to a law banning conversions by force or allurement comes despite protests by Christian groups who said such measures undermined basic freedoms. The proposed changes to the include a three-year jail term and a US$435 fine for those found guilty of forced religious conversion. It also requires that those wishing to convert need to seek the district administrator&#8217;s permission 30 days in advance. But Chhattisgarh&#8217;s Bharatiya Janata Party government said it was not possible to make a turnaround on the proposed changes to the act, passed by the state assembly in August and now awaiting the state governor&#8217;s approval. &#8220;The protest and demonstration by Christian bodies will hardly make any sense, the act has already been passed by the assembly and soon it will become law,&#8221; state Home Minister Ramvichar Netam told Reuters. For decades, India&#8217;s Hindu nationalists have accused Christian missionaries of bribing poor tribes people and lower castes to change their faith. Christian missionaries have a strong presence in a vast rural forested belt of Chhattisgarh, mainly in the social and education sector. &#8220;We oppose the amendment as it is aimed to harass the missionaries and target minority Christians,&#8221; said Archbishop Joseph Augustine of Raipur. &#8220;It basically violates fundamental rights of the Indian constitution that ensures religious freedom to all citizens.&#8221; At least three of India&#8217;s 29 states ruled by the BJP or its allies have already enacted similar laws.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>www.alertnet.org RAIPUR, INDIA, September 12, 2006: A Hindu nationalist-led government in central India said on Monday it will proceed with,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}