Lucknow: Ahead of the Maha Kumbh, a senior cleric has written to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressing fears that mass conversions of Muslims will take place during the event, while other community leaders have flagged the alleged demand raised by some Hindu seers’ body to keep Muslims out of the mega gathering.
Last year, the Akhil Bharatiya Akhada Parishad (ABAP) had allegedly given a call to procure goods for the Maha Kumbh exclusively from Hindu shopkeepers to ensure that purchases were made solely from the true followers of Sanatan Dharma.
Held every 12 years, the Maha Kumbh will be organised in Prayagraj from January 13 to February 26.
Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi has written to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aidtyanath, saying that he has come to know of plans for mass conversion during the mela. This, the cleric argues, falls foul of the state’s Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2024.
In the letter dated January 3, Barelvi argues that the conversion could lead to tension in the state and the country, hence it was necessary that it is prohibited. He has also said that as the Kumbh is a religious programme, the message it gives should be one of peace and amity, and not one that divides society.
“If mass conversions were to happen,” argues the cleric, “it will give radical Muslims and Christian missionaries leeway to conduct their own conversion programs silently that they are doing thus far.”
Under the 2024 Act, any person who wishes to convert needs to give notice to the district magistrate that s/he is doing so without any force, coercion or undue influence of allurement. The DM is then required to conduct an inquiry into such a conversion to ascertain facts. A person who wishes to convert also needs to present himself before the DM to reaffirm the facts as submitted in the written notice.
News of the conversions emerged from a comment by Mahant Ravindra Puri, president of the All India Akhara Parishad that many Muslims and Christians who were yearning for a return to the folds of Sanatan had been in touch with him. Some other saints have also voiced similar sentiments indicating that people of other faiths want ‘ghar wapasi’.
