The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) now in session in New Delhi has issued the following statement:
The BJP and the RSS are indulging in doublespeak by talking about religious conversions. The RSS organisations are conducting a reconversion campaign targeting the minorities. The RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat has justified this reconversion as bringing back people to their original faith. The episode of reconversion in Agra has exposed how false assurances and inducements were used for reconversion.
At the same time the BJP and RSS leaders are demanding a law to ban forcible religious conversions. There is no need for such a law as Article 25 of the Indian Constitution provides for “freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religions”. If there is any forcible conversion it is already covered under Indian Penal Code (Section 153(a)) as it classifies forcible attempts in the name of religion as a criminal offence.
In fact the RSS campaign for forcible reconversion and the call for a law to ban forcible conversions are both directed against the religious minorities and intended to use the issue of conversion to sharpen communal divisions.
The Polit Bureau demands that the RSS sponsored reconversion campaign be prohibited using the provisions of the law.