Karnataka: Church vandalised in Chickaballapur as Assembly debates anti-conversion bill

As Karnataka Assembly debates the anti-conversion bill, a church has been attacked Chickaballapur on Thursday. As per visuals from the site, St. Anthony's statue at a church in Soosaipalya of Chickaballapur district was vandalised and the church's glass windows were broken. A massive faceoff is currently underway in the Karnataka Assembly between BJP and Congress over the legislation.

Church attack in Chickaballapur

In the Assembly, state law minister JC Madhuswamy tabled the anti-conversion bill, stating that the bill was first formulated in 2016 when Congress' Siddarmaiaih was CM. He alleged that the same bill has now been scrutinized by the BJP govt and tabled it. Ex-CM Siddarmaiah denied that the bill was scrutinized by his cabinet which was countered the BJP with 'documents'. Previously, Congress state chief DK Shivakumar walked off tearing the bill into pieces.

CM Basavaraj Bommai has defended the bill saying that it aimed to prevent religious conversions by inducements in the state. "Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism and constitutionally recognised religion," he said. "There would be no hindrance to the worship and religious practices of people belonging to any religion. It is only to prevent conversions by inducements," he added.

Many Christian groups, including the archdiocese of Bangalore, have opposed the proposed anti-conversion bill. In a letter addressed to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Machado urged him to not promote 'an undesirable and discriminatory bill' keeping a harmonious society in mind. He further questioned the need for such implementation 'when sufficient laws and court directives are in place to monitor any aberration of the existing laws'. He also questioned the government's order to conduct a survey of both official and non-official Christan missionaries, establishments, institutions operating within Karnataka.

If passed, Karnataka will be the fourth BJP-ruled state after UP, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to pass a law against ‘forced religious conversions’ to allegedly tackle 'Love Jihad'. UP's law does not mention 'love Jihad' or defines the term, it makes forceful religious conversion, including through marriage, punishable with a jail term of 1-5 years with Rs 15,000 penalty.  Moreover, if the woman is a minor or belongs to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, the jail term will be between 3-10 years and the penalty upto Rs 25,000. The law also punishes mass conversions with jail term is of 3-10 years and fine of Rs. 50,000 on the organisations conducting it. Gujarat has ordered an interim stay on its 'Freedom of Religion Act, 2021.