Religious Conversion: Chhattisgarh gears up to introduce bill to provide harsher punishment
Chhattisgarh is gearing up to introduce a bill aimed at cracking down on conversions, with provisions for harsher punishments. The proposed bill requires individuals seeking to convert to another religion to submit a filled-in application with personal details at least 60 days in advance to the District Magistrate. The police would then investigate the motive and reason for the conversion. If found to be illegal, the bill provides for a punishment of up to 10 years.
The draft of the "Chhattisgarh Prohibition of Illegal Religious Conversion Bill" is ready and may undergo amendments before being tabled in the legislature. According to the draft, conversions through abuse of power, coercion, undue influence, incitement, fraudulent means, or through marriage would be considered illegal.
Under the proposed bill, individuals must appear before a magistrate for verification within 60 days of submitting the application. Failure to do so may result in the conversion being considered illegal. The District Magistrate is required to display a copy of the declaration on the notice board of his office until the date of confirmation, and maintain a record of every convert.
In case of objection by blood relatives or the adopted person, an FIR can be lodged, and the case would be non-bailable and tried by the Sessions Court. The bill imposes a minimum of two years and a maximum of 10 years in prison, along with a minimum fine of Rs 25,000, for illegally converting minors, women, or persons belonging to Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes. Mass conversion is punishable by a minimum of three years and a maximum of 10 years, along with a fine of Rs 50,000. Additionally, the court may approve compensation of up to Rs 5 lakh for victims of religious conversion. The law, however, does not apply to those who want to convert back to their previous religion.
The state has witnessed several instances of attacks on tribals who had converted to Christianity in districts like Kondagaon and Narayanpur. Conversion became a significant election issue before the assembly elections, with the BJP making it a focal point of their campaign. Late Union Minister Dilip Singh Judeo initiated the "Ghar Wapsi" campaign in Jashpur, aimed at bringing converted individuals back to Hinduism.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Dev Sai highlighted the increase in religious conversions over the past five years. He praised Judeo for his efforts in preventing rapid conversions, noting that even as a king, Judeo washed the feet of converted people and brought them back to Hinduism.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
