Bangalore Archbishop Peter Machado on Tuesday dismissed a Sangh parivar outfit’s allegation that a century-old Catholic school in the city has made it mandatory for students to carry the Bible with the aim of converting non-Christians.

“This allegation is false and misleading,” the archbishop said in a statement, contesting the allegation against Clarence High School.

“The management of the school has clarified that such a practice was there in the past and, since last year, no child is required to bring the Bible to the school or asked to read it by force,” Machado said.

The archbishop’s clarification followed claims by the Hindu Janajagruti Samithi that the school management was forcing parents to sign a declaration allowing their children to carry the Bible to class. The outfit had alleged that the aim was to forcibly convert non-Christian pupils.

Principal Dr Jerry George Mathew had on Monday denied the allegation of forced conversions and said the school was seeking legal remedy. School sources said no student was forced to attend Bible classes, held beyond school hours.

The latest controversy aimed at harassing minorities has reared its head at a time the BJP government in Karnataka is contemplating to make the Bhagavad Gita a part of the curriculum in schools.

Archbishop Machado pointed out that being a Christian minority institution, Clarence High School was well within its rights to conduct Bible classes outside of school hours.

“The school has justified that moral education based on the examples of the Bible cannot be considered as forced religious education. The institutions run by other religious sects also give religious instructions based on their sacred books. It is extremely unfair to target only the Christian institutions, and whatever good is being done is labelled as ‘For Conversion!’” the statement said.

Archbishop Machado cited unconfirmed reports that the Karnataka education department was deputing block education officers to inspect the syllabi followed by Christian schools. “Why only Christian minority institutions are targeted?” he asked.

“When our Christian minority institutions are rendering selfless services to the society without any discrimination or partiality, levelling such false accusations and causing harassment by some fundamentalist groups and education department cannot be condoned,” Archbishop Machado said, urging people “not to be influenced by the false propaganda made by some fundamentalists and vested-interest organisations”.

He sought to know whether students asked to carry copies of the Bhagavad Gita to school once the government makes it mandatory could also be construed as being an attempt to convert them.

“Certainly not! Therefore using the scripture books in minority schools to promote moral and ethical values cannot be considered as forcefully alluring the students towards their religion.”

Christians have been specifically targeted with allegations of fraudulent conversions, which the Church has vehemently denied. The Assembly had in December 2021 passed the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill that provides for a 10-year jail sentence if convicted of “fraudulent” conversions. The bill is pending in the Legislative Council, or the Upper House.

Several churches and prayer halls had been attacked over the months preceding the introduction of the anti-conversion bill.