CHENNAI: The activities of the church in
some parts of the country has been
detrimental to social harmony, BJP general
secretary K.N. Govindacharya said today.
"If the church doesn't take enough care
about the potential danger to social
harmony, it will contribute inadvertently
or otherwise, to escalation of tension and
violence," he told a press conference
here. Conversion did not mean a single
addition to the pantheon of gods that one
worshipped, but resulted in 'splitting and
fragmenting' society. This, he said, was
due to the 'exclusive Judaic thinking'
that painted gods of other faiths as
demons, reports PTI.
The Bhavani Shankar Neogi commission
report, submitted in the 1970's, had
concluded that conversions led to social
fragmentation and recommended a ban on
conversions obtained by fraud and
inducement, he said. Justifying Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's call for a
national debate on religious conversions,
Govindacharya said shunning such a debate
would be like adopting an ostrich-like
stance towards a problem that had
far-reaching implications. "Every time is
an opportune time for a debate," he said,
when asked if it was proper for Vajpayee
to talk about the need for a debate while
visiting Dangs district in Gujarat to
console victims of anti-Christian
violence.