Congress, BJP's 'Was Your Idea' Fight On Karnataka Anti-Conversion Bill

The day started with unidentified people vandalising St Anthony's statue in Karnataka's Chikkaballapur district to a heated debate on the anti-conversion bill. Congress leader Siddaramaiah, who is also the leader of the opposition, however, seemed ill-prepared to face a challenge thrown by Law Minister JC Madhuswamy in the state assembly.

Siddaramaiah and his team came prepared with striking points to attack the BJP; however, his attack was blunted by Mr Madhuswamy, who showed records that suggested the draft bill of the proposed anti-conversion law was first initiated by the Congress.

Siddaramaiah continued to claim the Congress had no role in drafting the bill. The Speaker soon adjourned the house for a discussion between Siddaramaiah and Mr Madhuswamy.

After the house resumed, Mr Madhuswamy showed the records, which, according to him, says the draft was completed by the Law Commission that had the initials of the then Congress Law Minister TB Jayachandra. It was subsequently sent for scrutiny, after which Siddaramaiah, who was then Chief Minister, had signed on it.

Siddaramaiah said he couldn't recall the draft bill reaching him, but later admitted he had signed it. The bill was not, however, taken up for a discussion in the cabinet by the Congress, Siddaramaiah said.

A copy of the draft bill that Mr Madhuswamy brought to the floor of the house, which NDTV has seen, shows the BJP leader's claims to be on weak grounds.

In November 2009, Chidananda Murthy, a scholar and Kannada writer; Narahari, a former MLA; BN Murthy, zonal secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad; MC Jayadev, a senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh functionary; Muthoor Krishnamurthy, former director of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, and SR Leela, who was the then MLC, petitioned the then Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa to bring an anti-conversion law based on the lines of Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Gujarat.

Subsequently, a draft bill was prepared known as the Karnataka Dharma Swatantriya Bill, 2012. The bill was drafted when Mr Yediyurappa was the Chief Minister. Some of the features of the 2012 draft bill were: any person found to be violating the law will be punished with imprisonment from one to two years and a fine between Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 or both will be imposed. The burden of proof lies on the prosecution.

By May 2013, the government had changed. The Congress's Siddaramaiah took over as Chief Minister. The same year the draft bill, this time named the Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion, was placed before the Law Department by the Law Commission of Karnataka.

"Dr M Chidanandamurthy, a renowned research scholar state that he met the then chief minister BS Yediyurappa in June 2009, and requested that a law may be enacted in the state of Karnataka prohibiting forcible religious conversions on the lines of law enacted in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Orissa," reads the Law Commission report of 2013.

This draft, which was discussed by the Social Welfare Department and the Law Department, was placed before the government in 2015.

"Yes, I signed the draft which was given to me by the Law Commission. But I never brought it to the cabinet for discussion," said Siddaramaiah, clarifying it on the floor of the assembly that the bill was the brainchild of the RSS and its ideological mentor BJP, and it was never the intent of the Congress to bring in such a law.