Will talk to all stakeholders on anti-conversion law, says Arunachal CM

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu has assured his government will consider views of every stakeholder through wide consultations on the state's anti-conversion law.

Khandu recently kickstarted a controversy when he said the Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act 1978 - framed 40 years ago to check proselytisation - undermined secularism and was probably targeted at Christians.

Later Ram Madhav, the BJP general secretary in-charge of the North-East, posted to Twitter that the chief minister had not said that the law would be repealed.


“There is no truth in it. The CM has clearly stated that a wide ranging consultation about its efficacy will be undertaken, not its repeal. As far as I know, there is no such proposal to repeal the 978 Act,” Madhav's tweet said.

In the first of consultations, held on Friday with the Indigenous Faith and Cultural Society of Arunachal Pradesh (IFCSAP), the Chief Minister reiterated that the state government will stick to its secular principles and therefore consult every stakeholder before taking any decision on the Act.

In an official communique, Khandu said, “This is a government of the people, and every decision taken will be in consultation with the people.”

The chief minister also observed that the Act needed to be studied in detail to understand its implications, and that at the outset it safeguared the secular spirit of the Indian Constitution.

Tribal groups in the state are against repealing the act. Indigenous Faith and Cultural Society of Arunachal Pradesh and the Nyishi Indigenous Faiths and Cultural Society had said the talk on scrapping the act amounted to minority appeasement.

According to 2011 census, Arunachal Pradesh’s population is 30.26 % Christian, 29.04 % Hindu and 26.2 % other religions.