By Verghese V Joseph –
Bengaluru: With Karnataka State Government all set to table the proposed Anti-Conversion Bill in the upcoming Legislative Assembly in Belagavi next month, over 100 Christian leaders met at St. Joseph’s Indian High School Grounds in Bengaluru to take stock of the current situation and prayed for the unity of the State, the Government and its leaders.
Later, a delegation of the leaders led by Archbishop Most Rev. Dr. Peter Machado, submitted a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister Mr Basavaraj Bommai on behalf of the entire Christian community of the State to Mr J Manjunath (IAS), Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate in Bengaluru.
In the memorandum, they once again requested the Chief Minister not to table the anti-conversion bill and to take back the orders on the survey of Christian missionaries and their establishments.
The memorandum stated that the entire Christian Community in Karnataka opposed the proposal of Anti-Conversion Bill in one voice and questioned the need for such an exercise when sufficient laws and court directives were in place to monitor any aberration of the existing laws. They expressed that the Indian Constitution Article 25 very clearly said, “Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion subject to public order, morality and health.” Further, Article 26 stated that all denominations can manage their own affairs in matters of religion. Therefore introducing such laws would infringe the rights of the citizens, especially of the minority communities.
Moreover, the Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare Department of Government of Karnataka has issued an order to conduct a survey of both official and non-official Christian missionaries and the institutions and establishments functioning in the State. “When all the relevant data is already available (through the census) with the Government, why do we need yet another futile exercise?” Asked the leaders in the memorandum.
The memorandum questioned: “Why only Christian community is targeted and marked for this arbitrary, fallacious and illogical move? What is the motive that is driving them to do so?”
Christian leaders asserted that thousands of schools, colleges and hospitals were run and managed by the Christian community across the State. “When lakhs of students are graduating from these institutions year after year and thousands of patients — irrespective of caste, creed and colour receive the best medical attention from our hospitals and care centers, let the Government prove that even one of them has ever been influenced, compelled or coerced to change his or her religion. Moreover, anti-conversion become a tool for the fringe elements to take law into their own hands and vitiate the atmosphere with communal unrest in the otherwise peaceful State.”
“Hence, we strongly appeal to the goodwill of the Chief Minister and the Cabinet not to promote such an undesirable and discriminatory bill in the interest of the harmony peace and in the society,” the leaders urged.