The Karnataka government is poised to table the contentious anti-conversion bill during the current legislative session, likely on Tuesday, after the cabinet approved it on Monday.
Law department sources said the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021, provides for up to 10 years’ jail for “fraudulent” conversions by inducement or coercion.
The bill is a result of widespread accusations by the Sangh parivar about “illegal” proselytisation by Christians and has generated fear within the community, which makes up just 1.87 per cent of the state’s 6.5 crore people.
The bill prescribes three to five years’ jail apart from a Rs 25,000 fine for anyone engaged in illegal conversions, law department sources said. The jail term can go up to 10 years, and the fine to Rs 50,000, if the person targeted for illegal conversion is a minor, Dalit or tribal. Mass conversions can attract three to five years’ jail with a fine of Rs 1 lakh.
A legal conversion, under the bill’s provisions, entails a lengthy process that includes securing the approval of the deputy commissioner or district magistrate, who must be informed at least 60 days in advance. The bill looks to deny facilities such as caste-based reservations once a person converts.
“Innocent people are being converted in the state through the offer of money,” chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said at a VHP event in Belgaum on Monday.
“Religious conversions are not only about increasing the numbers of (members of) that particular religion, they are about changing the entire mindset of those who convert, which will eventually affect society. There is a clear attempt to capitalise on poverty (to promote conversions). We will not allow it.”
The run-up to the bill’s tabling has witnessed several attacks on churchgoers and priests.
Sangh parivar activists barged into a Christian prayer hall in Nagarbhavi on Bangalore’s outskirts on Sunday, after making a bonfire of Christian literature in Kolar near here on December 12.
On November 28, Bajrang Dal activists disturbed a prayer session in Hassan district. On November 7, parivar activists locked up a pastor and worshippers at a prayer hall in Belgaum, while VHP workers chanted bhajans at a prayer hall in Hubli in October.
A worried Christian community sent memorandums to Bommai and held a massive peace rally in Bangalore recently. Several bishops, led by Archbishop of Bangalore Peter Machado, have met Bommai to express fears that an anti-conversion law would lead to further harassment of priests, nuns and the laity.
The Congress and Janata Dal Secular too had objected to the bill.
The archbishop has reserved his comments on the cabinet approval to the bill. “Since it’s just a procedural matter for the legislature, the bishop has decided to wait and see,” a Church official, who cannot be named, told The Telegraph.
State Congress president and lawmaker D.K. Shivakumar said the enactment of the bill would trigger communal tension and affect the investment climate.
“The BJP thinks only of its political agenda,” he told reporters in Belgaum.
