India, Aug. 31 -- Dear Shri Devendra Fadnavis Ji,

You may be supremely happy that your Freedom of Religion Bill has received the President's assent and has now come into force in Maharashtra. But there is an irony that you may not have noticed.

In Pune, your police were so eager to implement the law that they did not even wait for President Droupadi Murmu's assent before invoking it in two cases. To be fair to the Pune police, they withdrew the provisions once the Home Department made it clear that the law would come into force only on August 28.

Everyone knows who the principal target of your legislation is, even though the law does not name any religion. Christians constitute a tiny fraction of Maharashtra's population. Yet you have ...