Will appeal to governor not to give assent to anti-conversion bill, says Bengaluru archbishop

Bengaluru archbishop on Thursday said members of the Christian community will appeal to the Karnataka governor not to give assent to the anti-conversion bill. The state government has taken the ordinance route in order to give effect to the law against religious conversions.

Archbishop Peter Machado in a statement said there have been no incidents, neither of conversion nor of aggressive incidents against the community.

“We cannot understand the sudden turn of events and what is there in the mind of the government with the ordinance in hand, there is no doubt that the fringe elements and groups will try to create problems for the members of our community as we have seen in the past and the government has no control on them,” he said.

“We have every hope that the governor, who is the head of the state will heed to our appeal and address our concerns, by not assenting to the bill on anti-conversion in Karnataka,” he added,

The anti-conversion bill is aimed at preventing conversion by means of ‘allurement’, ‘coercion’, ‘force’, ‘fraudulent means’, and also ‘mass’, conversion. According to the government, these instances cause disturbance of ‘public order’ in the state.

“We will surely put our trust in the government to protect our interests and concerns. We have no difficulty in government taking action against any excesses or unlawful activities that are noticeable with concrete proof,” the archbishop said.

The bill also proposes imprisonment of three to five years with a fine of Rs 25,000 for ‘forced’ conversion. The bill also states that converting a minor, woman or an SC/ST person will attract a jail term of 3 to 10 years, with a Rs 50,000 fine. Mass conversions will attract 3-10 years of jail time, with a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh.

Source : India Today