Prime News, Karnataka, Politics, Religion, Bengaluru, December 24:- The ruling BJP in Karnataka in the Assembly on Thursday (December 23) said that the new anti-conversion Bill tabled in the Karnataka Assembly is a ‘mere extension’ of the draft proposal which was prepared by the state Law Committee when the Congress was in power way back in 2016. The Congress, which had aimed to corner the BJP on the controversial Bill, found itself on the backfoot in the Assembly, when the BJP blamed the Congress for bringing the first draft.
After the session, Karnataka Leader of opposition Siddaramaiah, who was the Chief Minister at the time, said in defence that while an initial draft was made due to a demand raised by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) members in 2009, however, the Bill was never cleared by the Cabinet.
Minister for Home, Araga Jnanendra in his opening remarks on the bill said that the Anti-conversion Bill is the brainchild of the Congress. Further, Minister for Law, J Madhuswamy said that the draft was prepared by the Law Commission as per the directions of the then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
He further said that Siddaramaiah, as the then Chief Minister, had ordered the preparation of the draft proposal on prevention of forceful conversions. Stunned, Siddaramaiah refuted this and challenged the Bharatiya Janata Party to prove its claims.
Speaker Vishveshwara Hegde Kageri then read out his notes from the old file and asked him to verify it by himself at his office and adjourned the session briefly.
Earlier, in the Assembly Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that the anti-conversion law is “necessary to tame those elements who take advantage of the poverty of the people.”
“Eradicating poverty and helping the poor is different. But, there are elements who take advantage of these things and carry out their agenda of religious conversions. We have seen how people belonging to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe are lured and converted stage by stage,” he said.
