Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday said the state will soon have an anti-religious conversion law.
Replying to a query on the meeting with a group of Hindu seers, seeking a ban on religious conversion, Bommai said, “Seers of various mutts have appealed to the state government for implementing the Act to ban religious conversions in the state. The government is studying related laws passed by some states and soon anti-conversion legislation will be formulated.”
According to Hindu Janajagruti Samiti convener Mohana Gowda, under whose aegis the event was organised, over 50 seers of various Hindu religious orders met CM Bommai and expressed a need for a law banning religious conversion.
Hindutva outfit Sri Ram Sena’s chief Pramod Muthalik, Santhosh Guruji, Siddalinga Swami and Pranavananda Swami were among the delegates.
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The delegates also demanded that the converts be denied special benefits meant for the scheduled caste and other backward classes.
Recently, Karnataka has seen several attacks on churches and Christian prayer halls by Hindutva activists claiming that forced conversions were taking place.
Last year, Former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had formally announced that the government would take strong measures to put an end to religious conversion in the name of love and marriage.
Last month, a Muslim youth was brutally murdered by members of Sri Ram Sena over an interfaith relationship. During the Dussera festival, posters for Puja programs said that Trishuls (tridents) would be distributed to fight against “Love Jihad”, a bogus theory that assumes Muslim men entice Hindu women into relationships in order to convert them to Islam.
According to a draft memorandum formulated by right-wing groups, which was accessed by TNM, the following demands were going to be placed before CM Bommai.
- Preaching except for religious reasons should be banned. For example, religious preaching with promises of education, healthcare and financial motivations should be banned.
- Preaching by foreigners or those with support of funds from abroad should be regulated. Any such activity should have prior permission.
- Those who preach saying a particular religion is better than other religions so one should convert, or that scriptures of one religion are better than others and that any religion is higher than others, should be banned.
- The religion of every single citizen should be easily identifiable in documents. To facilitate this, a religion certificate should be given to everybody and birth certificate should also reflect if there is any religious conversion. Documentation after religious conversion should be made mandatory.
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Rushda Fathima Khan is the Staff Reporter for The Cognate.
