Goa government shelves anticonversion bill after Church and BJP MLA pushback

Goa’s BJP cabinet approved The Goa Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Bill, 2026, around August 26, Catholic World Report reported. The government did not table the bill in the monsoon Assembly after protests from the Catholic Church and civil society and pushback from BJP legislators, The Indian Express reported. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant met legislators on August 31, ahead of the session. Calangute BJP MLA Michael Lobo said the cabinet had acted in haste and that the bill would not be introduced in the sitting.

Christians, most of them Catholic, make up about a quarter of Goa’s population, CWR reported. The Council for Social Justice and Peace and the Catholic Association of Goa, in a joint statement carried by The Indian Express, warned that the draft would replace mutual trust with suspicion. The halt applies to the monsoon session; this brief does not treat the bill as permanently withdrawn.

Maharashtra’s Freedom of Religion Act took effect August 28. Archbishop Elias Gonsalves of Nagpur told EWTN News, as reported by Catholic World Report on September 2, that his archdiocese looks to the courts and “cannot expect a U-turn like in Goa.” Faith & World Brief earlier covered Mumbai churches collecting worship consent forms after that Maharashtra law took effect.