West Bengal govt's responsibility to stop forced conversions in state, says BJP

Kolkata: Asserting that BJP is against the practice of forced religious conversions, the party’s national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh on Tuesday said that the onus was on the state governments to stop such activities. “Our stand is clear. If there is forced conversion, the BJP is against it. When we are against it… it becomes the responsibility of the state government to stop it, arrest the culprits and file charge sheet against them,” he said while speaking to reporters here. [caption id=“attachment_2077739” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. PTI[/caption] But if the conversion is “peaceful and voluntary”, then the Constitution allows it, he said. Singh also attacked other parties, including Trinamool Congress, for not supporting to bring an anti-conversion law when the government has said that they were in favour of it. “If you are so concerned about conversion, then why not pass an anti-conversion law once? Why TMC and other so-called secular parties are running away from this? Because their vote bank politics will get exposed?” he asked. “The BJP’s charge is that Mamata Banerjee and your government are engineering polarisation in politics by playing the dirty card of communalisation. So please do not blame us,” the BJP leader said. On the Saradha chit fund scam, Singh said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee should be questioned by CBI in connection with the case just like TMC general secretary Mukul Roy, who had been summoned by CBI for being present in a meeting with Saradha chief Sudipta Sen in Kalimpong. “So the same yardstick also applies to Mamata Banerjee. We demand that CBI calls her under the same law, same yardstick. They should summon her,” Singh said. Asked to comment on whether they were ready to induct certain Trinamool leaders into the party fold, he said that they would need to screen people coming from the TMC or any other political party to ensure that nobody carried the charge and the taint of Saradha chit fund scam. “After they approach us, we will scrutinise them before inducting them,” Singh said. PTI