Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, on Tuesday, said the state government is planning to bring an anti-conversion bill.
The home minister observed that a few states have already such a law in place and added that the Karnataka government will study the anti-conversion laws in other states and will bring the bill.
According to Deccan Herald, the minister said in the assembly that the BJP-led government in the state is planning to bring a bill that regulate conversions after a saffron party MLA said his mother was lured into Christianity.
Hosadurga MLA Goolihatti Shekhar said during the zero hour that forced religious conversions are happening in the state and claimed that his mother too was lured into Christianity. "She was brainwashed into not keeping vermilion on her forehead, abandoning idol worship and so on. Even her phone’s ringtone is a Christian song," he was quoted as saying.
The MLA claimed that nearly 20,000 people in his constituency have been converted into Christianity, and added that Dalits, OBCs and even Muslims are being converted into that religion.
Admitting that the government is aware that such conversions are taking place in the state, the home minister said it is a punishable offence to covert people into another religion by offering them inducements.
"There is a widespread network not just in the state, but across the country. Should we introduce a bill or do something else...we are discussing how to curb this,” Deccan Herald quoted the minister as saying.
