On June 15, the Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka government decided to repeal the ‘anti-conversion law’ passed during the previous BJP regime. The ‘anti-conversion law’ and ‘Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021’ was passed in Karnataka Legislative Council in September 2022, when Congress staged a walkout.
The anti-conversion law was proposed to provide protection for the individual’s right to freedom of religion and prohibits unlawful conversion from one religion to another by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or any fraudulent means.
The Congress government’s move to withdraw the anti-conversion law comes after it hinted it would review the decisions of the previous BJP government. On May 24, Chittapur MLA and son of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Priyank Kharge, said that the Siddaramaiah government stands firm on reviewing bills passed under the BJP government if it affects the socially equal image of Karnataka or violates the rights of an individual.
Notably, the Congress leader’s comments came after Amnesty India made a similar appeal to the Karnataka government to fulfil pre-poll promises. The organisation tweeted that the government should revoke the ban on hijab in educational institutions, and review and repeal ‘discriminatory provisions’ in Karnataka’s legislation on cow slaughter and the anti-conversion law.
Anti-Conversion Law
On December 23, 2021, the BJP government passed the anti-conversion law to prevent unlawful religious conversion. On May 12, 2022, the BJP government promulgated an ordinance to give the anti-conversion law. The then-Law Minister of Karnataka, Madhu Swamy, said, “The Cabinet has decided to take the ordinance route as the Council was not in session. Whatever was passed in the Assembly will be made an ordinance, without any amendment. We will go before the council to pass the ordinance.”
Earlier, the then-Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the bill is only to prevent religious conversions by inducements, adding that the people need not worry about the bill. “Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism are constitutionally recognised religions. There would be no hindrance to the worship and religious practices of people belonging to any religion. The bill is only to prevent religious conversions by inducements,” he said in December.
Congress Revamps Textbooks
The Congress government also plans to revamp school textbooks and is set to remove a chapter on RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar. It was reported that a chapter on Hedgewar, which was introduced in the state syllabus by the previous BJP government, will be removed from the Class 10 Kannada textbook. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and School Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa reportedly took the decision at a meeting for educational reforms in Bengaluru.
The BJP has criticised the Karnataka government’s move to revamp the curriculum with the intent to remove Sangh’s contribution. In an interview with ANI, BJP’s National General Secretary CT Ravi said, “They (Congress) can change syllabus, they’re in power but they can’t change the history. Everyone knows about Sangh Parivaar’s patriotism…everywhere Sangh Parivaar’s ideology is getting stronger, that can’t be changed…our ideology is patriotism and does Congress want to eliminate patriotism and want to make this ‘Mughalistaan’?”
Congress had promised to undo the changes introduced in the school textbooks by the previous BJP government in its election manifesto. It was reported that lessons authored by Chakravarti Sulibele and Bannanje Govindacharya could also be axed from the curriculum.
Earlier, Congress MLC BK Hariprasad said that the Karnataka government would not include the life stories of individuals such as Hedgewar in the school curriculum while calling the RSS founder a “coward” and a “fake freedom fighter.” He further said that the ideology of the Sangh Parivar would not be allowed to influence the functioning of any government department.
Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar had said that the government would not implement the National Education Policy and would rather have its own state education policy. He further said that under the state education policy, the changes made under the previous BJP government would not be implemented.
Karnataka Minister Dinesh Gundu said, “There should be stories about the people who fought for country’s freedom not the people of your choice or whom you (BJP) idolise. We should have stories about people who have really contributed to the building of the nation,” in an interview with ANI. He added, “If you talk about the freedom struggle, those who participated in the freedom struggle -history should reflect that, not your personal choices, not who you idolise. BJP has tried to infuse their ideological issues into textbooks, which is not correct. So, Congress party will have to look at it very seriously and take corrective measures.”
He further said, “A lot of government properties have been handed over to many institutions belonging to the Sangh Parivar. So, we have to look at all those things, see if they have been done properly, legally and what we can do on those issues. But definitely, a lot of State Govt properties have been given to institutions & organisations which are closely connected to the RSS and BJP.”
