"Becoming Another UP": Karnataka Protests Over Anti-Conversion Bill Grow

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has said that the anti-conversion Bill was necessary to challenge "attempts to change the cultural background through allurement" in the state.

The contentious anti-conversion bill was tabled in the Karnataka assembly on Tuesday despite concerns raised by the opposition and Christian leaders over its potential misuse to target religious minorities.

After the tabling of the bill, a fresh protest was held by a group of organisations in Bengaluru, and attended by Bengaluru's Archbishop Peter Machado, who has made his opposition to the bill very clear.

"This group here (protesters) is not a Christian group. The Christians have not organised any rally today. We tried it in the past - we have approached the government but the government was not listening. But now that the contents of the bill are read by others, they say it is not affecting only Christians. It is affecting larger society - the question of privacy, the question of marriage, the question of women, Dalits, Muslims. There are 40 human rights groups here. I am just a minority here. It is not a Christian rally. It is sad that the government has taken this up. It looks like they are humiliating more and more groups that are behind me," Archbishop Machado, who was part of the protest march from Mysore Bank Circle to Freedom Park, said.

On other states passing similar bills, the Archbishop said, "Karnataka cannot take bad things from other states and put it in Karnataka. Karnataka is a developed and progressive state. We have to give a message to others that Karnataka is open to privacy, dignity and human rights. The government is damaging itself by trying to damage us Christians. It is affecting the other groups much more than the Christians. 80 per cent of Hindus are with us. They have gone to our schools, through our system. We have no complaint against them. But there is a strong fringe group that the Chief Minister and the government seems to be comfortable with."