The Congress government headed by Siddaramaiah has now decided to scrap the anti-conversion law. The Congress government headed by Siddaramaiah has now decided to scrap the anti-conversion law. The Congress government headed by Siddaramaiah has now decided to scrap the anti-conversion law. The Karnataka Cabinet has decided to withdraw the anti-conversion law brought in by the previous BJP government, India Today reported on Thursday. The BJP government, which was voted out recently, had brought in a law which aimed at preventing conversion by means of 'allurement', 'coercion', 'force', 'fraudulent means', and also 'mass conversion'. The law was adopted by the Karnataka Legislative Assembly in December 2021.
The government then brought an ordinance to give effect to the bill. The ordinance was cleared by Karnataka Governor Thawarchand Gehlot on May 17, 2022.
The Bill was tabled in September to replace the ordinance that was in effect and was passed by the Legislative Council. The bill, however, was strongly opposed by Congress MLAs as well as Christian community leaders.
The Congress has now decided to scrap the anti-conversion law. This comes just weeks after Karnataka Animal Husbandry Minister K Venkatesh hinted that his government may amend the 'anti-cow slaughter' law brought in by the previous BJP government. Recently, he said that farmers had been facing a tough time maintaining aged cattle and disposing of the dead.
"If one can slaughter buffaloes and bulls, what is wrong with slaughtering cows?" he asked, adding that the amendment of the bill would be in the larger interest of farmers in the state.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa said that the syllabus on KB Hedgewar has been dropped. "Whatever changes they (BJP government) have done last year, we have changed it and reintroduced whatever was there last to last year," Bangarappa said.
Former Karnataka Education Minister BC Nagesh reacted sharply and said: "They (Congress) want votes of Muslims, Siddramaiah's govt is against Hindus...they might even re-introduce hijab...they want to attract votes of minorities and politicise everything."
Karnataka Minister HK Patil said that the State Cabinet has decided to make it compulsory to read the Preamble of the Constitution along with the hymn in schools and colleges. The Karnataka Cabinet has also decided to amend the APMC Act in the state to bring back the old law.