By Thomas Scaria
Mangaluru, Dec 23, 2021: Karnataka Legislative Assembly has passed the Anti-conversion Bill without serious resistance from the Opposition parties two days prior to Christmas.
The “Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021” was tabled on December 23 which has definite clauses against any sorts of forced conversion, especially of the poor and Dalits.
The leader of the opposition Siddharamaiaa of the Congress party was silenced by Minister of LawJ.Madhuswamy who revealed that the anti-conversion bill was proposed by the Congress when it was in 2016 and the present draft is just an extension of the Congress draft.
Although the Congress party challenged the ruling party to prove the allegation, the law minister was able to show some proof of the same which the former chief minister could not defend. So, the bill was passed without much resistance.
The minister further said that Siddaramaiah, as the then chief minister, had ordered to prepare the draft proposal on prevention of forceful conversions.
Siddaramaiah, who spoke against the bill on several occasions and was expected to question the government on religious freedom, seemed to have lost his moral power.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that the anti-conversion law is very much necessary to tame those elements who take advantage of people’s poverty.
“Eradicating poverty and helping the poor is different. But, there are elements, who take advantage of these things and carry out their agenda of religious conversions. We have seen how people belonging to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe are lured and converted stage by stage,” he remarked.
Meanwhile attacks on Christians continued in Karnataka.
The statue of Saint Anthony inside 160-year-old St Joseph’s Church at Chikkaballapur was vandalized by some unidentified people. The police came and took away the statue for further investigation, according to NDTV reports.
A week ago, some rightwing activists burned Christian Scripture in Kolar. A Catholic priest was attacked at his presbytery in Belgaum diocese.
Several pastors and Sunday worshipers were attacked in the past few weeks.
Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore, the head of the Catholic Church in Karnataka, told a protest rally on December 22 that the bill was indirectly provoking violence against Christians and filing false cases.
Bishop K.A. William of Mysore told presspersons that the Karnataka Regional Bishops’ Council plans to file a suit in the court questioning the bill.
Christians must support this initiative. In the name of Jesus Christ lot of business is being conducted. Jesus is not a commondity that should be traded. Christians should focus on people who are already christian by birth or conversion and seek ways and means as to how they could improve the quality of living of poor Christians. Stopping fresh recruits will give them enough money to care for existing poor Christians.