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Cuttack collector issues notice to Sangh groups on reconversions

M I Khan in Bhubaneswar

The Cuttack district collector has issued show-cause notices to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, priest Swami Pranrupananda and a reconverted man, Dinabandhu Chattar, to explain why last week's 'reconversion' ceremony was conducted without first informing the district administration. The failure of the persons undergoing reconversion to file affidavits before the ceremony has also been questioned by Collector Pradip Kumar Jena.

Jena has indirectly asked the Sangh Parivar outfits to clarify their violation of the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1967, which makes it compulsory for all those involved in the reconversion to inform the district administration before the event.

Last week Sangh Parivar outfits went ahead with their plan to bring some Christian tribals back into the Hindu fold when five members of the Chattar family were reconverted in the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram at Keutibereni, about 25km from Cuttack.

The collector clarified that the notices were issued after the submission of the verification report by a team of administrative officials who visited the village soon after the incident to find out if there had been any violation of the OFRA.

"If there is any law in connection with conversions, it should be follow by all. Ignorance of the law is no excuse for its violation," said a Christian leader from Cuttack.

But VKA working president Swami Pranrupananda, who performed the ceremony, dubbed it a 'homecoming' and argued that reconversion was a misnomer.

Many feel that the Keutibereni reconversions aren't the first case of the Sangh Parivar violating the OFRA. Even in the much-publicised reconversion of 70-odd Christians at Manoharpur early this month, of the 12 families involved, five had not told the district administration of their wish to return to Hinduism, according to a social activist in Bhubaneswar.

According to Bishop D K Mohanty of Cuttack, said it was the state's duty to prevent the reconversions because there was no verification by the authorities whether they were done by force, allurement or inducement. The district administration did not even find out whether those who were reconverted were anxious to change their faith.

Christian leaders allege that the state government violated its own rules by not only not preventing those families which did not file affidavits from getting converted, but also not verifying the affidavits of those who did intimate the collector. Only after verification and permission from the district administration can conversion take place.

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