Terming religious conversion a silent invasion, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday said the menace of conversion should not be allowed to grow in society.
As of now, there is nothing to suggest that the 'Michaelpatti episode' has the potential to polarise Dravidian Tamil Nadu on religious lines, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Adding fuel to fire in the recent conversion-row, working president of right-wing organisation Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Pravin Togadia said ancestors of Indian Muslims and Christians were Hindus.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said the Bharatiya Janata Party is committed to bring Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the country but only after following all democratic processes and discussions on it.
It was soon after that call that Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav spoke to each other.
India witnessed religiously motivated killings, arrests, riots and coerced religious conversions and the police in some cases failed to respond effectively to communal violence, according to the US State Department report on International Religious Freedom.
Ignoring Prime Minister Narendra Modi's warning to the Bharatiya Janta Party leaders not to cross the 'lakshman rekha' with controversial remarks, Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal on Wednesday claimed the reconversion programme was an ongoing process and asserted that it will continue by spreading love and on consent of such people.
India is the birthplace of four major world religions -- Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It is home to the world's third largest Muslim population, a diverse community of sects that includes Sufis, Shia, and Bohra. Roughly three per cent of India's citizens are Christian, and notably, Christians are the religious majority in three of India's 29 states, she said.
Instead of repealing Section 295A of the IPC, which criminalises speech that offends the religious, India intends to further criminalise offence against religion, says Mihir S Sharma
Senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sankh leader Indresh Kumar favoured the Karnataka government's proposal to bring a law against forced conversions in the state.
'How can one bring jihad into a relationship? How can one be restricted on the grounds of religion in marital things?'
Anti-conversion laws are needed since thrusting the idea of a competitive battlefield of religion onto India's pluralistic traditions can only lead to greater communal conflict, says Sankrant Sanu
'When Hindus converted through inducements there was no hue and cry, but when reconversions took place, everyone cried foul. If re-conversions are bad, so are conversions.' 'Our government is not getting involved either in conversions or re-conversions. The BJP has nothing to do with it.' Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu in a candid interview.
Kamalrukh said she is a Parsi who got married to the "Dabangg" composer under the Special Marriages Act.
A bipartisan Congressional resolution has been introduced in the House of Representatives calling on the US government to continue the policy of denying a visa to BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on the grounds of religious freedom violations.
'Bommai is everybody's man and nobody's man'
From the standoff with China to the government's response to the farmers' protest, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh holds a freewheeling talk.
An Indian-American Christian outfit in the United States has expressed concern over a bill passed by Himachal Pradesh, alleging that it was aimed at harassing Christian workers in the Congress-ruled state.
Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, speaking on the Motion of Thanks on the President's address, charged the government with not delivering on its various promises, including generating two crore jobs per year.
'We must begin dialogue with openness and goodwill, but we will not proceed very far without trust and good faith. The alternative is the violence of 'might is right,' which settles very little and destroys so much of real value,' says Dr Rudolf C Heredia, author of Religious Disarmament -- Rethinking Conversion in India.
On the first anniversary of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government, Sangh Parivar affiliates say they are annoyed with the ruling dispensation but can't live without it either
'Since the goal of taking everyone along on the path of development -- sabka saath sabka vikas -- requires an atmosphere of amity, there cannot but be an emphasis on the primacy of law and order -- and it cannot be only against road-side Romeos or gutka chewers,' says Amulya Ganguli.
'There was a period when they questioned the flag and there were questions also against the Constitution.' 'That's long past.'
India comes under attack over religious intolerance, human trafficking and slavery at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
'It was Dr B R Ambedkar's foresight which saved us from some marauding state political leaders who could have indirectly disfranchised large sections of our population as we see some attempts even now,' says V Balachandran.
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