Even as right-wing activists up the ante on the need for an anti-conversion Bill in Karnataka, the Archdiocese of Banglaore has expressed reservations about the Bill and the intent behind it. Rev Peter Machado, who is also the president of the Karnataka Region Catholic Bishops Council, has questioned the Karnataka government’s proposal.
“If the Bill is passed in the Assembly and translated into law, we fear it will give way for large-scale uncontrolled communal conflagrations. Fringe elements and communal forces will be let loose and take law into their own hands. Moral policing will take precedence,” he said in a letter to Ant while urging him to consider all issues before taking up the proposal to bring in such legislation.
The letter comes at a time when VHP, Bajrang Dal and other Hindutva outfits have been holding demonstrations in some districts to pressurise the government to hasten the process to bring in such a law.
While reiterating that the Christian community does not encourage forced conversions, the Archbishop said that stray and sporadic incidents are being used to portray the entire community in a bad light.
The issue has gained bigger proportions after a BJP MLA claimed in the Assembly that his mother was forcibly converted and that over the last month, he convinced her to re-convert to Hinduism. A member of the Legislature Committee on Backward Castes and Minorities, Goolihatti Shekhar has also said that he has asked for a comprehensive survey and report on the number of churches functioning in Karnataka, besides data on those that are unauthorised.
Rev Machado said that while the Bishops Council strongly objects to such a survey is being carried out only on official and non-official Christian missionaries. If such a survey is done, then it must be done of all communities as the peace-loving Christian community is being accused of a serious crime otherwise, he said.
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