Modi government mulls anti-conversion Bill next session

New Delhi: Close on the heels of the triple talaq Bill and the Bill to scrap the Article 370, the NDA government at the Centre is now mulling to bring in a law to prevent conversion of religion.

It is learnt that the government may bring in the anti-conversion Bill in the next session of Parliament. Sources indicate that the government has already started the exercise in that direction.

Right-wing outfits often allege that Christian missionaries and Muslims convert poor Hindus by luring them with money.

Already a couple of states in the country have the law prohibiting religious conversion by force and inducement.

In 2003, when Narendra Modi was chief minister of Gujarat, the state passed the Freedom of Religion Act that prohibits conversion by force or inducement.

Modi called the passage of the anti-conversion Act as one of the main achievements of his government. The Centre may bring a Bill on the line of Gujarat's anti-conversion law.

In the recently-concluded Budget Session, the government passed key Bills like Jammu and Kashmir Re-organisation Bill, which bifurcates the state into two Union Territories – Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh, and Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, which criminalises triple talaq.

The session was one of the most productive session as it passed as many as 30 Bills.