After announcing a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), West Bengal chief minister Shubhendu Adhikari said the state would introduce a tough law against forced conversion and new restrictions on land transactions.
At a review meeting of the Paschimanchal Unnayan Parshad in Bankura on Tuesday (August 11), he said the government was working on two laws—one concerning conversion and another concerning land transactions.
He said the state would soon bring a UCC, followed by a strict law against forced conversion and new legal restrictions on buying and selling land. He did not specify the proposed land restrictions or whether direct barriers would apply to property transactions between religious communities.
The BJP has long alleged forced conversion, “land-grab campaigns” and demographic change from infiltration in border areas. Critics say those political claims are becoming state policy. Leaders, ministers, MPs, district administrators and about 75 BDOs attended the meeting.
Adhikari alleged that some foreign-funded organisations were misleading poor people in Bankura and Jangalmahal and were involved in illegal conversion and extremist activity. He also cited his government’s actions on border land, an allegedly illegal OBC list, allowances for imams and muezzins, and Muharram sword restrictions.
A four-member committee led by retired Supreme Court justice Ranjana Prakash Desai is reviewing the proposed UCC and has four weeks to submit recommendations before a bill is introduced. The code would create common rules for marriage, divorce, inheritance, property succession and adoption while retaining constitutional protections. If passed during the August budget session, West Bengal would become India’s fourth UCC state. The proposed conversion and land laws have sparked new political debate.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report