Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale on Saturday said that people who undergo religious conversion should declare so, as many of them “take advantage” from both communities.

At a press conference in Bengaluru, Hosabale said there was a need for anti-conversion laws to stop minority communities in India from increasing their population through “fraud or allurement”.

“Increasing the number [population] by any method cannot be accepted,” the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh office bearer said, according to The Indian Express. “There have been many resolutions passed in the country and many states have passed an anti-conversion Bill.”

A number of Bharatiya Janata Party-led states have enacted anti-conversion laws since last year to penalise “love jihad”. The pejorative term has been used by Hindutva outfits to push the conspiracy theory that Muslim men lure Hindu women into marrying them with the sole purpose of converting their brides to Islam.

However, Hosabale pointed out that in the past Congress governments in Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh have also passed laws to stop conversion. He added that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh will welcome laws against conversion.

“There is the freedom to change one’s religion by own personal will...But what is happening today is not that,” Hosabale said.

In February, the Centre had said that it was not planning to pass an anti-conversion law at the national level since the matter fell under the legislation of state governments.