Karnataka to withdraw anti-conversion law brought in by previous BJP govt

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Cabinet has decided to repeal the anti-conversion Bill that was brought in by the previous government led by then Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.

At a Cabinet meet called by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday, a decision was also taken to make changes to the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act. Both the amended Bills are expected to be tabled in the next session of the Karnataka legislature.

The controversial anti-conversion Bill prohibits conversion from one religion to another by misrepresentation, force, fraud, allurement or marriage. The Bill states: “No person shall convert or attempt to convert either directly or otherwise any other person from one religion to another by use of misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage, nor shall any person abet or conspire for conversions.”

The Cabinet also approved the revision of Kannada and Social Science textbooks of classes six to 10 in the state, for the current academic year by removing the chapters on RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar and Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar among others. It has also consented to add chapters on Savitribai Phule, Nehru’s letters to Indira Gandhi and poetry on BR Ambedkar, and do away with the changes that were brought in by the previous BJP government.

The Congress had in its poll manifesto promised to undo the changes made to school textbooks when the BJP was in power, and had also promised to scrap the National Education Policy (NEP).