Religious conversion issue: Opposition should present a united proposal, says Amit Shah

Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah on Friday said that the opposition parties should bring forth a united proposal to deal with the issue of religious conversions, rather than disrupting the Parliament.

"I just want to state clearly that the political parties, which have objected to the issue of religious conversions, should come together and bring forward to the BJP government a proposal which says that the conversions are violating the Indian Constitution," Shah said at a press conference here.

The BJP chief also touched upon the subject of Maoists operating in Chhattisgarh and was confident that the state government would soon succeed in defeating the separatists.

"The Chhattisgarh government has been fighting Maoists for the past ten years and has been successful in pegging back the extremists, but this is an issue which cannot be resolved overnight. However, I feel that the state government has been quite successful in winning that conflict so far and should be able to defeat them soon," he stated.

Shah, who was in Raipur on the occasion of Dr Raman Singh completing 11 years as Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, congratulated him, adding that the state has moved forward tremendously since he took charge.

"The BJP has completed 11 years as a state government in Chhattisgarh and I believe that the party and Dr Raman Singh have had a great hand in bringing about this glorious period, where the state has developed tremendously," he stated.