New Delhi, Apr 20 (PTI) Pointing out that several states have enacted laws against religious conversion, with some specifically criminalising conversion for marriage, Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) Rajya Sabha Leader Derek O’Brien on Monday compared these to a Nazi-era law, as he drew parallels between events transpiring in India and those in Germany in the 1930s.
Framed through a series of brief historical and contemporary snapshots in a blog post, O’Brien placed German policies from the 1930s and recent developments in India side by side.
Citing laws in Germany at the time restricting interfaith relations, he mentioned anti-conversion legislations in some Indian states, particularly those linked to marriage.
“Twelve states have enacted laws against any manner of religious conversion. The laws passed in Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana specifically criminalise conversion for the purpose of marriage, and declare any marriage performed for conversion as void. They also require state approval before an individual is allowed to change their faith,” O’Brien wrote.
Referring to the 1935 citizenship framework in Germany based on ancestry, the blog post juxtaposed it with India’s Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), which provides expedited citizenship to specified religious communities from neighbouring countries.
O’Brien mentioned an incident from Uttar Pradesh where eateries along the “Kanwar Yatra” pilgrimage route were asked to display their owners’ names.
He compared this to the Nazi Party’s boycott of Jewish businesses and the graffiti painted outside those establishments to mark them.
In a separate note shared with the media, the TMC leader also touched upon the burning of books in Germany in the 1930s and compared it with revisions in school textbooks carried out by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), and around 249 churches being burnt in Manipur recently as the state got embroiled in ethnic violence, comparing it with attacks on synagogues in Germany in 1938.
O’Brien dedicated the post to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He also pointed out that Monday (April 20) was the 136th birth anniversary of Adolf Hitler, even as the blog post did not refer to him by the name, but said, “The son of Alois Hitler and Klara Polzl is one of history’s darkest figures.” PTI AO RC
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