In a show of commitment to its election promise, Karnataka under Siddaramaiah has decided to repeal the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act. This decision was taken in a cabinet meeting.
“Article 21 of the Constitution already gives everyone the freedom to choose their religion and to follow any religion they want. This [the law passed by the BJP] has been done to erase the minorities. If we come to power, we will restore it to whatever the law said earlier,” Siddaramaiah had said during the election campaign.
When the Bill was tabled in the Assembly, it was torn to pieces by Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar on the floor of the house the Act was in line with the Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand laws and prohibited religious conversion, under section 3, by “misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by any of these means or by promise of marriage.” Conversion by such means, under the Act, invited imprisonment for up to 3 to 5 years and a fine of Rs. 25,000. The minimum punishment under the law was the highest among all other anti-conversion laws, where the same is 1 year. Similarly, every offence was cognizable and non-bailable.
Further, the cabinet has also decided to remove school textbook lessons on RSS founder K B Hedgewar and others, reported Deccan Herald. The government also plans to make reading of the Preamble of the Constitution in all schools and colleges. Since the textbooks for the year have already been printed the government has decided that a supplementary booklet would be sent to all schools immediately, with instructions on what should be there in the textbooks or what not in the Kannada and Social Knowledge textbook of classes 6 to 10, reported India TV
The following changes have been implemented in school textbooks of Class 6 to 10, reported Times Now:
- Savithri Phule’s subject is included again in the syllabus.
- A poem on Ambedkar was removed earlier, it will be reinserted in the syllabus.
- A chapter on Nehru was also removed and is now reinstated
- RSS Founder Kesharam Hedgewar’s chapter is removed
- A lesson that had writing by Chakravarthy Sulibele is also removed
- A lesson on Savarkar is now removed
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