My Columns: Without Fear and Favour

Religious Conversions: Decoding Modi’s Silence By  Deepak Parvatiyar December 19, 2014 In late nineties, the issue of religious conversion in Dangs in Surat had invited a prompt response from the then prime minister and the founder of the BJP, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and he had personally visited the place for a first hand assessment of the situation and, thereafter, called for a nationwide debate on the issue of conversion on whether it should be banned at all. Opposition Wants Modi to break his Silence over Religious Conversions The silence of Narendra Modi – only the second BJP PM after Vajpayee – therefore has created a ruckus in Parliament when the issue of reconversion has yet again raised its head after the return of the Lotus to power at Centre after a decade. The Opposition wants to corner the prime minister on the issue of alleged forced conversions recently in Agra, and it did score a brownie point when the Chairman allowed a debate on the issue in the Raj