At a time when the Government is advocating an anti-conversion law, Union Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla on Wednesday said existing laws of the country were adequate to deal with conversion by force or inducement.
Asked about her views on an anti-conversion law, Ms. Heptulla said: "There are already so many laws to deal with it. If there is a consensus on bringing another law, it is up to the law-makers. I have to go by what my party line is.’’
She is the second Union Minister in two days to make this point; the first being Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan. "The existing laws regarding conversion are sufficient,’’ he said on Tuesday in a media interaction.
And, like her cabinet colleague, Ms. Heptulla defended Prime Minister Narendra Modi; maintaining he had made his position on minorities clear in his Independence Day speech and so does not have to intervene
every time a controversial statement is made by someone. "No one in the Cabinet has said anything against minorities. Why should he keep repeating himself,’’ was her reply to questions on Mr. Modi’s silence on the row over conversions and other statements against minorities.
