The drama of Agra conversion staged by RSS and its allied outfits in the name of ghar wapsi (returning home) is nothing but a gameplan to bring in Anti-conversion Bill. This is an old demand of the communal forces. They also raised voice for it during Atal Behari Vajpayee period. These views were expressed by Parwaz Rehmani, Editor-in-Chief, Urdu bi-weekly Dawat. He was delivering a lecture on “Freedom of Religion and Indian Constitution” at Jamaat-e-Islami Hind headquarters in New Delhi on 13 December.
Furthermore, elucidating the issue, Mr. Rehmani said that this controversy is not isolated from other controversies such as Love Jihad and Maharana Pratap anniversary, etc. The aspiration behind engineering such controversies is to divert people’s attention from real issues because this government has totally failed in fulfilling its promises and tackling real issues. The party has come to power with the help of corporates. So, the government is serving the corporates’ interests by sidelining people’s interests.
Talking on enforcement of the Constitution, the learned speaker said that the two agendas were highlighted frequently much before drafting of the Constitution viz. during the freedom struggle. These are freedom of religion and total prohibition of alcohol. But, these agendas were not fulfilled at their best. The freedom of religion has been hijacked by communal forces and the business of alcohol is continuing under the command of the government.
Addressing the harms of anti-conversion act, he said that if the bill comes into force, it will be hard to embrace Islam for those who are impressed with the teachings of Islam. There are a large number of people who are impressed with the teachings of Islam. He said that history has witnessed that extreme opponents of Islam have embraced it and are doing so even today. He mentioned the example of former RSS chief K. Sudarshan, who was impressed by Islam at the fag end of his life. He added that the media reported about K. Sudarshan that he had visited mosques many times.
Mr. Rehmani also revealed that the communal forces themselves don’t want any type of conversion. Because, after conversion, in which caste will they keep them in Hinduism. The caste system doesn’t permit them to convert anyone to Hinduism. This is a complicated issue for them.
In the programme, some video clips were also screened by IndiaTomorrow.net. In the video, Kuldip Nayar, a well-known journalist, questioned the liberal Hindu community why they were silent on the rising pace of communalism. Mr. Nayar also mentioned an example of communal harmony. He said that once Mohammed Muslim, Former Editor of Dawat broke his fast with his (Nayar’s) hand.