(The Karnataka Cabinet on Monday, 20 December, cleared the anti-conversion bill, which seeks to criminalise 'allurement,' including employment and free education in schools run by any religious body, The Quint has learnt by accessing the draft bill.)
The Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021 couldn’t be more fraudulently named – it is actually a bill which takes away the right to Freedom of Religion, as enshrined in the Constitution of India, not to protect it.
I’d like to make three brief points:
1. There is talk of “conversion factories” – if the tiny 2.3 percent Christians were indeed converting, and at a rate alarming enough for the majority 80.5 percent community to feel intimidated, surely the population of Christians would be far, far higher than it is. In fact, it has reduced. Non-producing factories, perhaps?
2. Christians punch far above their weight in education (over 70 percent minority schools), and healthcare (just Catholic medical institutions provide a quarter of all rural hospital beds), only the government does more than this community!
And it doesn’t stop there. Christianity excels in all sorts of social outreach, and are the pioneers which many others have sought to emulate. This is the “agenda” of the church – not the grand propaganda of conversion.
3. There seem to be a lot of 'nationalists' making assertions. Christians as said before contribute far beyond their numbers. Take for example the military – the Navy had more than three Christian admirals/navy chiefs, and at least three Air Chief Marshals/Air Force chiefs and a sprinkling of army officers, including an Army chief, were Christian.
When the country’s security was with these 2.3 percent Christians – all highly decorated – what are they talking about? Are they more nationalistic, population wise?
To conclude, this Bill and other bogus ones like it, are brought in just to appease to a constituency – the hatred and distrust they foment simply by casting aspersions cannot be more anti-national and condemnable.
If an adult cannot choose her or his own religion, when they are deemed old enough to vote for corrupt politicians, the situation seems absurd.
(Father Dominic Gomes is the spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Kolkata. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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