Ahmedabad (Fides Service) - "This law is contrary to every form of democracy". The statement was made by Archbishop Stanislaus Fernandez of Gandhinagar in the state of Gujarat with reference to a document on religious freedom approved on 26 March by the government of Gujarat state without any discussion in the State Assembly. According to this bill any individual who wants to change religion must first request permission from the civil authorities. The law foresees heavy fines or prison for conversions operated by force or fraudulent means. The document follows the model of a law already approved in Tamil Nadu State in southern India.
Archbishop Fernandez attributes responsibility for the document to the BJP Baratiya Janata Party, (Party of the Indian People), which won recent elections in Gujarat (December 2002), and which advocates a Hindu nationalist policy. According to the Archbishop the approval of the law in such a delicate matter without any discussion in parliament is inconceivable. He notes moreover, that there have been no cases of forced conversions or conversion obtained with fraudulent means: "This law - he said - violates basic human rights and constitutional rights, freedom of conscience and religious freedom".
"The Christian community - underlined the Archbishop - has never created social tension. It has always diffused a message of fraternity equality and harmony, working for the development of the population and all the communities. Forced conversions are totally repudiated by our Churches." Mons. Fernandez then explained the reasons for the protest: "We believe that conversion is a grace from God which cannot be subjected to the scrutiny of any civil government. Asking for the permission of the civil authorities for religious conversion signifies abdicating from the personal responsibility of every individual for the eternal salvation of his soul. In this case every man must respond to the voice of his soul and not to temporal rules".
The new government of Gujarat already promised in February a "discriminatory censure" conducted by police officers only on Christian communities, families and institutions, giving rise to strong protest on the part of the Indian Bishops' Conference. The apprehension of the bishops is motivated by recent episodes of violence suffered by Christians and other members of religious minorities. The Bishops fear the aim is to close Christians in a ghetto, isolate them and control an eventual numerical growth which would be proof of their work of proselytism masked by social service.
In the meantime also in the state of Maharashtra Christians took to the streets to claim their right to religious freedom and protest against acts of intimidation carried out recently by Hindu extremists. Day ago a group of 35 Hindu militants broke down the door of an evangelical church in the village of Pattapangra, putting at the church entrance a statue of the Hindu divinity Hanuman with the head of a monkey. The police, after insistent complaints, removed the statue and consigned it to the nearest Hindu temple. According to the evangelical pastor D.B. Kulothungham, the Hindu militants damaged also other churches in the district of the same State: "This is a group of extreme right Hindus which promotes a culture of intolerance towards minorities, incites to religious clashes and social disharmony", he explained. According to the local police, the militants are members of the RSS Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sang, (national volunteer corps) a group which propagates the integral ideology of hindutva, based on the principle "one people one nation, one culture".
Christians have asked civil authorities for more protection, recalling the right to profess in peace one's religious beliefs, as guaranteed by the Indian Constitution, which designs a secular pluralist state. PA (Fides Service 1/4/2003 EM lines 47 Words: 634)