The Hindu : Mass conversion of Dalits put off

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 13, 2003

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National

Mass conversion of Dalits put off

By Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD June 12. The proposed conversion of some one lakh Dalits in Gujarat to Buddhism has again being postponed. The programme scheduled to be held in Vadodara on Sunday has been deferred till October 5, the Buddha Purnima day.

While Bhante Sanghapriya, the general secretary of the Vishwa Bouddha Sangh, which had planned the mass conversion, blamed the ``lack of support'' from the district administration for the postponement, authorities said that he had been compelled to defer the programme for the fourth time, because of lack of response from the Dalits.

Bhante Sanghapriya said the district administration had not responded to his request for security and the Vadodara municipal corporation had not given any on drinking water supply to the estimated one lakh people, expected to attend.

This, he claimed, had led to the postponement. He also claimed that at least 55,000 Dalits had signed a printed form declaring that they were embracing Buddhism out of their free will and not under any pressure or lure, a condition that will become an important component of all religious conversion programmes in the State once the freedom of the religion bill, passed by the state Assembly, is notified in the Government Gazette and becomes an Act.

District authorities, however, denied Mr. Sanghapriya's charges. The District Collector, Bhagyesh Jha, said the Sangh had organised similar programmes thrice but had to cancel them for want of response, the last time being on April 14, the birth anniversary of Ambedkar, when the Sangh had planned a mass conversion in the same city but postponed it till June 15 at the last moment.

Contrary to its claim that it planned to convert a lakh of Dalits, the venue the Sangh had selected for the programme could not have accommodated more than 10,000.

The district administration had made necessary arrangements if the Sangh was ready to go ahead with its programme.

But the latter did not have the network to collect such a massive gathering nor three days before the ceremony was there any indication of such a large number of people converging in Vadodara, Mr. Jha said.

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