The recently established Punjab Bachao Morcha declared that it will take legal action against “illegal” conversions in the name of “miracle cures” in the state. On 12th November, its president Tejasvi Minhas called for the adoption of an anti-conversion bill in Punjab to stop widespread, unlawful religious conversions by “self-styled godmen and pastors.”
Additionally, the organisation promised confidentiality and offered a financial incentive of Rs 2 lakh to anyone who could provide “proof of illegal conversions.”
According to Minhas, the group would shortly file PILs on the matter and send memorandum to the governor, chief minister and chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
“Around 65,000 pastors are operating in the state and engaging in conversions through enticement, coercion and fake miracle cures in violation of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 and several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS),” he and other activists as well as professionals including Prof MP Singh and Sukhwinder Singh Lally outlined, during a press conference at the Punjab Press Club in Jalandhar.
The party maintained that government authorities were doing nothing despite the fact that miracle remedies violated the spirit of the Constitution and were prohibited under the aforementioned laws. They added, “The 2011 Census recorded the Christian population at 1.26 per cent (around 3.48 lakh people), which has risen to nearly 15 per cent, pointing to large-scale conversions in the last decade.”
Some foreign nationals travelling to India on employment or tourism visas, according to the speakers, were “involved in conversions, though the law mandates a missionary visa for such activities.” They charged that foreigners performing conversions in India were failing to secure the legally required missionary visas.
Likewise they raised concern about the use of loudspeakers and advertisements that “disturb the peace and religious sentiments of others,” as well as the conversion of agricultural land for the construction of deras.
The group called for “an updated religious census, withdrawal of reservation benefits for converts from Hinduism and Sikhism, and investigation by the CBI and the RA&W into foreign funding of such religious groups.” A member of the party conveyed, “We shall also file PILs for a ban on magic miracles and for the removal of reservation benefits for those who were Christians in reality, but not on paper.”
