PRIME Minister Narendra Modi warned his lawmakers for the first time to stop promoting controversial issues such as religious conversions and to focus on economic reforms as he struggles to pass legislation needed to kickstart the economy.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), called off a plan to convert thousands of Muslims to Hinduism this Christmas, which had threatened to stir fresh religious discord, after Modi's intervention.
But opposition politicians continued to disrupt parliament on Wednesday (December 17), saying they were not convinced the ruling group had given up its partisan agenda.
“The prime minister feels that we should not deviate from our agenda of economic reforms and development,” said Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu priest-turned-lawmaker who has been running Hindu reconversion campaigns, a sensitive issue.
With a week left before the session of parliament ends, he risks ending the year without passing a single major reform. His election raised hopes that the leader would build on the economic transformation that began in the 1990s. Instead, efforts to overhaul the tax system and lift caps on foreign investment have been derailed by deadlock between the government and opposition parties.
“The problem with Modi is not the opposition, it is fringe elements within his own party,” said S Chandrasekharan, director of the South Asia Analysis Group, based in New Delhi.
Hindu group Dharam Jagran Samiti, which called off the mass conversions planned for December 25 in Aligarh, said it had only paused its campaign to bring Muslims and Christians back to its fold.
“We have suspended our plans but this is just a suspension not a ban,” leader organiser Satya Prakash Navmann, who stands accused in six communal riot cases, told reporters. “No one can stop us from making India a land of Hindus.”
