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BJP decries protests against Pope's visit, but with a rider

The Bharatiya Janata Party today reiterated that it was against any kind of protests against the visit of Pope John Paul II to India next month.

Talking to newspersons, party spokesman M Venkaiah Naidu, however, asserted that the party was also agitated by conversions ''by inducement.''

''Money is coming to this country from outside for the purpose and it must be looked into,'' he said, while clarifying that the party was not against the money coming in for welfare purposes.

Naidu called for a national debate on the issue in which eminent people belonging to different religions could participate. It was necessary as conversions and re-conversions were causing social tensions in some parts of the country, he said.

The BJP leader, however, refused to make any direct comment on the attempt by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad volunteers to take out a protest rally against the Pope near Rajasthan-Madhya Pradesh border yesterday.

UNI

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