New Delhi, Nov 25: Alleging that forced conversions were still taking place in suburban Delhi and Rajasthan, the RSS today welcomed the BJP promise to enact an anti-conversion law in the two states if voted to power. "Forced conversions still take place in certain suburbs of Delhi and parts of urban Rajasthan and we welcome the BJP decision to include the demand for an anti-conversion law in their election manifesto for the two states," RSS spokesman Ram Madhav told a news agency. Brushing aside criticism that BJP was aping the congress, which had passed a similar legislation in Madhya Pradesh, he said "had it been so, the congress would have included it in their manifesto." In Jaipur, union information and broadcasting minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had defended BJP's promise for such a law in its Rajasthan manifesto saying it was necessary to check "induced act of religion conversion" by missionaries in some parts of the state.

Since the BJP is a firm follower of "cultural nationalism," it was the need of the hour to bring an anti-conversion law in Rajasthan on the lines of similar legislations in Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Tamil Nadu, he told reporters.

Madhav said RSS had been demanding enactment of the anti- conversion law all over the country "for quite some time now." Bureau Report