By Thomas Scaria

Bengaluru, May 17, 2022: The Karnataka government has passed an ordinance to abolish religious conversions in the southern Indian state ignoring resistance from the Catholic Church and other groups.

Karnataka Governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot ordinance on May 17 signed the ordinance a day after a Catholic delegation headed by Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore appealed against the ordinance through a memorandum.

Father Faustine Lobo, the spokesperson of the Regional Bishops Council in Karnataka, said the governor signing the ordinance is a dark day for democracy in the state. “We are really saddened about this ordinance,” he told Matters India.

“It is not about conversion or no conversion, it is all about the government ignoring the contributions by the Christian community to the people of Karnataka,” said the priest who called the ordinance a “back door enactment.”

Father Lobo said a delegation of Catholic bishops had submitted a memorandum signed by Archbishop Machado to the governor on May 16 and “he had promised to study the ordinance before considering it for signing.”

“But he signed it today,” lamented Father Lobo who addressed a group of journalists on the matter.

The Karnataka governor gave his assent to the ordinance on the controversial Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021, popularly known as the anti-conversion bill.

With the governor’s approval, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is expected not to waste time to implement the bill which proposes stringent measures on religious conversion activities.

The bill was passed by the state legislative assembly but it was yet to be presented in the legislative council, where the ruling party is one seat short of majority. It is in this context, the government decided to go ahead with the ordinance.

The Karnataka government had tabled the controversial bill in the assembly session at Belagavi on December 21, 2021.

All legal entities, educational institutions, orphanages, old age homes, hospitals, religious missionaries, and NGOs are brought under the purview of institutions.

According to the new law, any converted person, his parents, brother, sister or any other person who is related to him by blood, marriage, or adoption or associated in any form, or a colleague could lodge a complaint of conversion that contravenes the law provisions. The offense is made to be non-bailable and cognizable offense.

The bill proposes a declaration before conversion to a religion and also report in advance about conversion.

“No person shall convert or attempt to convert, either directly or otherwise, any other person from one religion to another by use or practice of force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by any other means or promise of marriage, nor shall any person abet or conspire such conversion,” it says.

Archbishop Machado said that the entire Christian community in Karnataka opposes the bill.

“It is indeed a matter of great concern that the anti-conversion bill would become a tool for the fringe elements to take law into their own hands, and vitiate the atmosphere with provocations, false accusations, communal unrest,” the archbishop warned.

According to the 2001 Census data, Christians accounted for 2.34 percent of India’s population. This was further declined to 2.30 percent, according to the 2011 data. In Karnataka, Christians were only 1.91 percent in 2001 and 1.87 in 2011.

“If there were rampant conversions, as claimed by some, the Christian population, both in the state and the nation, would have seen a considerable increase in the numbers,” the archbishop said.

“It is a well-known fact that thousands of schools, colleges and hospitals are managed by Christian community across the state and country as well,” the prelate added.