By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
NEW DELHI (Worthy News)-- An Indian lawmaker of the ruling Hindu nationalist party has promised a death sentence for any Hindu who converts to Christianity, according to the International Business Times.
"Wait for some time," said MP Sakshi Maharaj. "A law will be passed in Parliament in which anyone indulging in cow slaughter and conversion will be punished with the death sentence."
However, Maharaj said Indians of Christian or other non-Hindu faiths who convert to Hinduism will not be sentenced to death on the assumption that all of India's religious minorities were all formerly Hindus.
"Ghar wapsi" or reconversion is not conversion, but a process to guide these people to where they actually belong, said Maharaj.
Relations between India's different religious groups have been strained by threats of forced conversions; just prior to Christmas, the Indian parliament was forced to adjourn after opposition MPs staged a protest against attempts by Hindu nationalist groups to reconvert Christians.
About 80 percent of India's 1.2 billion people are Hindus. Muslims make up almost 15 percent of the population with other minorities making up the remaining five percent.