Existing laws regarding conversion are sufficient: Ram Vilas Paswan

NEW DELHI: Nearly 10 months before Assembly elections in Bihar, Union minister for food and civil supplies Ram Vilas Paswan is girding up to campaign, with his son, Chirag Paswan, with a launch of a public outreach programme from January 17 in the state.

The minister said that the young MP would be touring the state to spread the message of the NDA, and to highlight the ways in which the Janata Dal (U) government had failed the people of Bihar. “The tour programme will start from January 17, and will cover almost the entire state in the next few months,” he said.

Paswan junior’s campaign trail becomes interesting in the context of the new chief minister of Bihar Jiten Ram Manjhi, a Mahadalit, who is increasingly laying claim to the backward community vote bank. This is also the political base Paswan has dominated for a while in Bihar.

However, according to the minister, he is not threatened by either the new chief minister or even by the merger news of the JD(U) and the RJD. “When there is an apprehension of a flood, snakes, rats and scorpions all get together in fear,” he said in response.

On the issue of conversion, Paswan said that current laws were sufficient. “I am against forcible conversion of any kind but ways to prevent it are present in the current set of laws. Everyone in our country is free to believe, propagate and profess any religion," he said without commenting further on whether he too drew a distinction between conversion and Ghar Wapsi as was being done by the RSS and its affiliate organisations.