Between Congress, JDS Opposition: Anti-Conversion Bill passed by Upper House

The much anticipated anti-conversion bill was passed Friday by the upper house in Karnataka, despite opposed by the opposition parties, Congress and Janata Dal Secular.

The opposition argued that such a law will infringe on the freedom of religion granted in the Constitution. The government countered that, the law would only protect people from forcible conversion, which is becoming increasingly frequent.

Those violating the law will get a jail term of three to five years and be fined ₹ 25,000. In case of conversion of a minor, the punishment may extend up to ten years and the fine will be ₹ 50,000. In case of mass conversion, a fine of ₹ 1 lakh can be imposed. A repeat offender can be fined up to ₹ 2 lakh and a get jail term of minimum five years.

The Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021, better known as the anti-conversion bill, was passed by the Karnataka Legislative Assembly in December 2021. The bill was tabled in the Council today, after the BJP achieved majority following the MLC elections.

The anti-conversion bill, piloted by Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, prohibits "unlawful" religious conversion. Under the new law, unlawful conversion will be through misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or any fraudulent means.

Defending its move to pass this controversial bill, the ruling BJP called it an effort to “protect our religion and stop forceful conversion”. The opposition Congress and JDS have condemned the step and called it a “politically motivated bill” that is being forced upon people to further the BJP’s Hindutva agenda.

Former Congress chief minister and leader of opposition Siddaramaiah said the Congress will scrap the anti-conversion bill within a week of coming into power or the first session of the state legislature after coming to power. However, the party found itself in an embarrassing position, when the BJP countered Siddaramaiah by showing a draft bill drawn in 2016, by the then Karnataka law commission chairman VS Malimath, saying it should be brought before the cabinet. This was signed by Siddaramaiah, who was the CM at the time.

The Congress party calls it an absolute violation of Articles 25 to 28 of the Indian constitution and in the garb of claiming to stop forcible religious conversion, “they are promoting vigilantism”.

Karnataka’s law minister JC Madhuswamy stated that the BJP has brought this bill to “protect Hinduism and stop forceful conversions”.

“We have not restricted anyone’s freedom and this bill is just to ensure that nobody is forcefully converted,” he said on the floor of the assembly.

Karnataka is not the first state in India that has brought in such a bill. Earlier this year, Himachal Pradesh passed a stringent law to curb mass conversions just before the polls. States like Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Gujarat, and Arunachal Pradesh have also similar laws in place.