Bengaluru: Days after Karnataka Main and Secondary Training Minister Madhu Bangarappa spoke of a revision at school textbooks within the state, the cupboard formally took a call to that impact Thursday. Considerably, the cupboard has additionally determined to repeal the controversial anti-conversion regulation mooted and handed by the earlier Basavaraj Bommai-led Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) authorities within the state.
The choice to repeal the anti-conversion regulation has been termed by the Siddaramaiah-led Congress authorities as an try to “proper the wrongs of the earlier administration”.
The Karnataka Safety of Proper to Freedom of Faith Invoice, or anti-conversion invoice, was handed within the Karnataka legislature final yr. The Congress, then in opposition within the state, had staged a walkout.
Now the choice of the Congress — which was voted to energy within the state final month — to repeal the invoice has ruffled the BJP and added to the friction between the 2 events, with the BJP accusing the Siddaramaiah authorities of trying to offer a “secure haven for conversion factories” within the state.
“We have now accredited the invoice to repeal the modifications [anti-conversion law] that had been introduced in by them (BJP authorities) in 2022. It is going to be tabled through the session ranging from 3 July,” Karnataka’s Minister for Regulation and Parliamentary Affairs, H.Okay. Patil, informed the media in Bengaluru Thursday.
He added: “Concerning textbook revision, the Cupboard mentioned the proposal introduced by the division, the teachings eliminated and added, and the choices to be taken, and has given its approval,” Karnataka’s Minister for Regulation and Parliamentary Affairs, H.Okay. Patil, informed the media in Bengaluru Thursday.
Revising college textbooks to take away modifications made by the earlier BJP authorities when in energy within the state was a part of the Congress’s ballot manifesto for the ten Might elections, which it received with a transparent majority.
“We have now solely restored what was there earlier than the earlier BJP authorities made modifications; we have now eliminated the modifications that they had made,” Bangarappa informed the media Thursday.
He added: “We have now eliminated a chapter on Hedgewar [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh founder], [Vinayak Damodar] Savarkar and a chapter written by Hindu activist and thinker Chakravarthy Sulibele. Additionally some harsh phrases have been modified.”
The Congress had opposed the revision of textbooks when it was carried out early final yr and known as it an try by the BJP to “saffronise” college training.
Whereas the brand new tutorial yr has already began in Karnataka, the Congress authorities has mentioned that it’ll make preparations to evaluate the textbooks.
“There’s a provision of supplementary books as executed prior to now, so we’re going for a supplementary ebook relating to what’s to be executed and what’s not wanted or could result in unsuitable pondering. We have now eliminated what was not required,” Bangarappa mentioned.
The supplementary textbooks may have some chapters that had been eliminated by the earlier administration to finish the syllabus.
He added {that a} five-member knowledgeable committee of instructional specialists and writers, together with Rajappa Dalawai, Raveesh Kumar, T. R. Chandrashekar, Ashwath Narayan, and Rajesh, has labored on revising the textbook for this yr.
Bangarappa mentioned that although there have been makes an attempt to make “bigger modifications” to textbooks, the federal government will make required efforts to institute important modifications to textbooks of courses 6 to 10.
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‘Congress succumbed to pressures of conversion mafia’
In the meantime, the Congress authorities’s choice to repeal anti-conversion regulation has drawn extensively totally different reactions within the state.
The Bommai-led authorities had introduced in an ordinance towards spiritual conversions, earlier than getting the ‘Karnataka Safety of Proper to Freedom of Faith Invoice’ handed in legislature.
The regulation criminalised and penalised any spiritual conversion by “misrepresentation, power, fraud, allurement or marriage” and imposed heavy penalties for defaulters, together with jail time period of as much as 10 years and advantageous of Rs 1 lakh.
The passage of the invoice had reportedly witnessed a pointy enhance in vigilante teams accosting minority teams, accusing them of changing marginalised teams.
“The repeal of this controversial invoice serves as a validation of the constant stand taken by the Church and the Neighborhood. It reaffirms the idea that the laws was not solely detrimental to the person’s freedom of faith but in addition stood in direct contradiction to the provisions enshrined in Article 25 of the Indian Structure [freedom of religion],” Reverend Dr. Peter Machado, the Archbishop of Bangalore and president of the Karnataka Area Catholic Bishop’s Council mentioned in a press release Thursday.
The Siddaramaiah authorities’s transfer, nonetheless, triggered the BJP to hit out on the Congress.
“Anti Conversion Invoice geared toward stopping conversion by the use of ‘allurement’, ‘coercion’, ‘power’, ‘fraudulent means’ & additionally ‘mass conversion’. By repealing the regulation, Congress has succumbed to the pressures of Conversion Mafia & has given a secure haven for Conversion factories,” B.Y. Vijayendra, the state BJP Vice President and MLA from Shikaripura in Shivamogga mentioned in a publish on Twitter.
Anti Conversion Invoice geared toward stopping conversion by the use of ‘allurement’, ‘coercion’,’power’, ‘fraudulent means’ & additionally ‘mass conversion’.
By repealing the regulation, Congress has succumbed to the pressures of Conversion Mafia &has given a secure heaven for Conversion factories. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/gVn1hbpclz
— Vijayendra Yeddyurappa (@BYVijayendra) June 15, 2023
He added that repealing of the act “offers a free hand to some anti-national international parts” whose purpose was to vary the demographics of the nation with “nefarious designs”. He mentioned that this may be a shot within the arm for ‘Love Jihad’, a time period usually utilized by Hindutva outfits to focus on interfaith relationships.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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