AAP leader Yogendra Yadav urges PM Narendra Modi to break silence on religious conversions issue

Amid a storm over mass "ghar wapsi" reconversion campaigns by Hindu groups, the Aam Aadmi Party urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday to break his silence and condemn the practice clearly.

"The reports from Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, and Punjab are very worrying. Strangely, the BJP and the Prime Minister's Office is silent on this," AAP leader Yogendra Yadav told ANI. He contrasted Modi's silence with that of his predecessor: "Earlier, we thought that the Prime Minister [Manmohan Singh] was affected with the syndrome of being silent about all the major issues. This Prime Minister, who clearly doesn't suffer from this problem, is very strangely silent."

Yadav said minority communities were apprehensive and that only the highest political office could offer the needed assurance. "This is very disconcerting and I do hope for the sake of the country, for the sake of its secular Constitution that the Prime Minister's Office will clarify the situation," he said.

The controversy had already paralyzed Parliament: the Rajya Sabha failed to conduct legislative business for the sixth straight day as opposition parties demanded that Modi make a statement on the conversion issue, while also accusing the government of backtracking on its promises on black money and unemployment.

The "ghar wapsi" campaigns — organized reconversions of Christians and Muslims to Hinduism by groups affiliated with the RSS, including widely reported ceremonies in Agra — had become the winter session's defining flashpoint, forcing the government onto the defensive.

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Based on reporting by DNA India/ANI, December 2014.