The anti-conversion law enacted by the previous BJP government will be repealed by the Karnataka cabinet. In the upcoming legislative session, which begins on July 3, the government will introduce a bill in this regard.
“The Bureau examined the counter change bill. We have approved the bill to overturn the 2022 changes made by the BJP government. After the Cabinet meeting, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil told reporters that “it will be tabled during the session starting from July 3.”
The Karnataka Legislative Assembly approved the anti-conversion Bill, also known as the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021, in December 2021. It used “allurement,” “coercion,” “force,” “fraudulent means,” and also “mass conversion” to stop people from converting.
The law, which among other things imposed a jail term of three to ten years and a fine of Rs 50,000 on anyone who engages in “illegal conversion,” was criticized by leaders of the Congress and other opposition parties.
Syed Moyin, a Muslim man who had eloped with a young woman, was arrested for the first time under the law in the state on charges of converting her to another religion in violation of the newly enacted Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act, 2022.
In its manifesto prior to the elections for state assemblies, Congress pledged to repeal the National Education Policy (NEP) and undo the alterations made to school textbooks by the BJP.
With 135 out of 224 seats, the party stormed into the Vidhana Soudha, achieving an absolute majority.
The chapter on RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar and Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar, among others, were removed from the revised Kannada and Social Science textbooks for the current academic year, which were approved by the cabinet on Thursday.
It has also agreed to remove the changes made by the previous BJP government and include chapters on Savitribai Phule, Nehru’s letters to Indira Gandhi, and poetry about BR Ambedkar.