Author: Manas Dasgupta
Publication: The Hindu
Date: June 13, 2003
URL: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2003/06/13/stories/2003061305711100.htm
The proposed conversion of some
one lakh Dalits in Gujarat to Buddhism has again being postponed. The programme
scheduled to be held in Vadodara on Sunday has been deferred till October
5, the Buddha Purnima day.
While Bhante Sanghapriya, the general
secretary of the Vishwa Bouddha Sangh, which had planned the mass conversion,
blamed the ``lack of support'' from the district administration for the
postponement, authorities said that he had been compelled to defer the
programme for the fourth time, because of lack of response from the Dalits.
Bhante Sanghapriya said the district
administration had not responded to his request for security and the Vadodara
municipal corporation had not given any on drinking water supply to the
estimated one lakh people, expected to attend.
This, he claimed, had led to the
postponement. He also claimed that at least 55,000 Dalits had signed a
printed form declaring that they were embracing Buddhism out of their free
will and not under any pressure or lure, a condition that will become an
important component of all religious conversion programmes in the State
once the freedom of the religion bill, passed by the state Assembly, is
notified in the Government Gazette and becomes an Act.
District authorities, however, denied
Mr. Sanghapriya's charges. The District Collector, Bhagyesh Jha, said the
Sangh had organised similar programmes thrice but had to cancel them for
want of response, the last time being on April 14, the birth anniversary
of Ambedkar, when the Sangh had planned a mass conversion in the same city
but postponed it till June 15 at the last moment.
Contrary to its claim that it planned
to convert a lakh of Dalits, the venue the Sangh had selected for the programme
could not have accommodated more than 10,000.
The district administration had
made necessary arrangements if the Sangh was ready to go ahead with its
programme.
But the latter did not have the
network to collect such a massive gathering nor three days before the ceremony
was there any indication of such a large number of people converging in
Vadodara, Mr. Jha said.
