By Shoeb Khan
Jaipur: Muslim organisations and civil society groups have criticised the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Bill, 2025, calling it a political weapon to harass non-Hindu minorities, particularly Muslims.
Passed on Sept 10, the Bill has triggered outrage for excluding reconversion to Hinduism from its purview, a clause the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has termed “blatantly discriminatory.
“Prominent voices, including Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), have warned that the law gives police sweeping powers to confiscate property and detain people on mere allegations of conversion, fostering what they call a “bulldozer culture.”
These bodies have argued that if the bill receives assent from the governor or the president, they would have no option but to challenge it in a court of law.
“The Bill defines ‘inducement’ and ‘coercion’ so loosely that even something as ordinary as telling a friend how prayers give you peace, or inviting them to a free community meal, could be twisted into an ‘attempt to convert by allurement’. Yet, if someone is re-converting to Hinduism, these same actions would not count, creating an unequal and unfair rule,” said SQR Ilyas, AIMPLB national spokesperson.
Calling the Bill “unconstitutional” and “an assault on personal liberty,” SDPI national vice-president Mohammed Shafi argued that making all offences non-bailable and demanding prior permission from the district magistrate “violates multiple fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.”
This story was originally published in timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Read the full story here.
