Opposition lawmakers in India have shut down parliament in protest against alleged forced conversions of Muslims to Hinduism, with the disarray threatening to disrupt the premier’s legislative agenda.
Furious lawmakers stormed the well of parliament’s upper house on Tuesday, demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi address reports that groups linked to his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coerced poor Muslims into converting to India’s majority religion.
“The house will not run until the prime minister comes for discussion over the communal incidents and forced conversions issue,” said Derek O’Brien, from the regional opposition All India Trinamool Congress.
An associate group linked to Modi has allegedly bribed some 50 poor Muslim families into converting to Hinduism in the Taj Mahal in the city of Agra last week.
One of the converts said the families were promised financial incentives and ration cards if they went ahead with the conversions.
Meanwhile, a BJP lawmaker has since announced that a bigger conversion event was planned in the northern town of Aligarh on Christmas Day, in hopes of converting more Christians and Muslims.
In May, the BJP, led by Modi, won 274 seats in the 543-seat lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha.
However, the BJP lacks a majority in the upper house, where Congress and regional lawmakers routinely protest a range of issues.
Currently at stake are Modi’s plans to pass a series of major economic reforms through parliament, with just four days of the current session remaining.
