TN Ordinance on Conversions

Date: 
Tuesday, October 8, 2002

Press Statement

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

CPI(M) Denounces Tamilnadu Ordinance

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly disapproves the ordinance issued by the Tamilnadu government banning religious conversions.

The right to profess propagate any religion by any person is fundamentally guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. Any attempt by anybody to enforce a religious conversion by any means other than voluntary is punishable in the existing laws.

Hence, the issuance of an ordinance, a course adopted under extra ordinary circumstances, smacks of political overtones being made by the Jayalalitha government. Further, there is every possibility of a gross misuse of this ordinance for minority bashing.