Senior Congress and former Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily on Wednesday termed the alleged forced conversions in Agra as an assault on the secular concept of this country, and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to show maturity while dealing with this issue.
"It's anti-democratic, anti-national and it's an assault on the secular concept of this country. It's not a question of whether the state should take action or the Centre should take action," Moily told ANI outside the Parliament here.
"When John F. Kennedy was the President of U.S., you know what he has done when a girl was put out of the school because of the racial discrimination, he sent the Federal Army to put one girl back to the school. This is a kind of democratic maturity which can be expressed even by the present Prime Minister," he added.
Reacting to the BJP's claim that nobody was forcefully converted, Moily said: "It's very easy to say, but on the ground something contrary is happening."
Earlier in the day, many lawmakers raised concerns in the Parliament about the conversion of some 200 people to Hinduism in a ceremony in Agra by groups linked to the BJP's ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
BJP leader Kalraj Mishra, however, described the allegations as wrong, saying the conversions in Agra was not forced.
Also Read
Expressing serious concern over the issue, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati today said the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government must take the issue seriously, and added that communal forces needed to be stopped from doing such things.
Bajrang Dal and Dharam Jagran Manch, the groups that performed the mass conversions, claimed that the families were originally Hindus and converted to Islam around 30 years ago.