JAIPUR, April 7: The government of the Indian state of Rajasthan passed a controversial bill on Friday prohibiting religious conversions, bringing renewed focus on an issue that has triggered communal violence and been used as a political tool.

For decades, India’s Hindu revivalists have accused Christian missionaries of bribing poor tribals to change their faith, but Christians deny mass conversions and say those who do convert do so to escape the rigid Hindu caste hierarchy.

Authorities in Rajasthan state, ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said it was banning religious conversions because they were weakening communal harmony.

“Some religious institutions, bodies and individuals are involved in unlawful conversion by allurement or by fraudulent means or forcibly,” Gulab Chand Kataria, Rajasthan’s interior minister, said.

“In order to curb such illegal activities and to maintain harmony, we have enacted a special law.”

Any breach of the new proposal could be punished with up to five years in prison and a hefty fine, he said.

The act was passed by the state lawmakers, but still needs to be ratified by the governor to take effect.

The move has attracted stinging criticism from other political parties and religious groups, who accuse the Hindu right wing of whipping up fear for political ends.

“Such an act defies logic, since conversion activities had rarely been reported in the state”, said Salim Engineer, state general secretary of Jamaat-i-Islami, describing the move as an ‘act of fascism’.—Reuters