Minority groups call on Congress government not to accept VHP demands to retain the anti-conversion legislation
BENGALURU — Several minority groups in Karnataka have urged the Congress government to fulfil its 2023 election promises — including restoration of Category 2B reservation for Muslims, repeal of the anti-conversion law, withdrawal of the cattle-slaughter law, and firm action against hate speech.
In a letter to Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Thursday, the groups argued that the anti-conversion law was interfering with the right of citizens to choose their spouses, while also violating the right to privacy and dignity of a person.
The letter followed a convention organised under the banner of Voice of Minorities and Oppressed Sections of Karnataka at Freedom Park here on Thursday. The Karnataka Rajya Muslim Okkootta, members of the Church of South India (CSI) — a united Protestant Church — Catholic churches, Dalit organisations, farmers’ groups and other rights organisations took part.
“Karnataka has an opportunity to demonstrate constitutional leadership by repealing the legislation and affirming the freedom of every individual to choose and practice their faith without unjustified interference,” the letter said.
The demand comes amid a renewed tug-of-war over the legislation. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has recently urged Chief Minister Shivakumar not to withdraw the law, after Archbishop Peter Machado, prelate of the Roman Catholic Church in Bengaluru, requested the government to repeal it.
Four Core Demands
The convention adopted five resolutions and placed four major demands before the government: Repeal the anti-conversion law, withdraw the cattle-slaughter law, enact a stringent law against hate speech and restore the Muslim 2B reservation
Organisers said the convention did not demand anything new; the Congress had promised these steps in its manifesto before it came to power in May 2023, and more than three years later, the laws remain on the books.
The Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act, 2022, was first promulgated as an ordinance by the previous BJP government led by Basavaraj Bommai, passed by the Assembly in December 2021 and the Legislative Council in September 2022, and notified on 30 September 2022.
It prohibits religious conversion by misrepresentation, force, fraud, undue influence, coercion, allurement or marriage, but allows reconversion.
Key provisions that critics object to include conversion being made a cognisable and non-bailable offence, making marriages conducted with the intention of conversion void and criminalisation of ‘abetment’ and ‘conspiracy’ to convert. It also envisages that a person intending to convert must give 30 days’ prior declaration to the District Magistrate, who then conducts an inquiry
The law stipulates punishment of 3 to 5 years’ imprisonment and Rs 25,000 fine for general offences, rising to up to 10 years for offences involving minors, women, SCs/STs, with compensation of up to Rs 5 lakh to victims on court orders.
The BJP and the VHP say the law protects vulnerable people, especially women and Dalits, from forced or inducement-based conversion and “love jihad” — a term used by Hindutva groups for alleged conversion through marriage.
Christian, Muslim and civil-liberties groups say the prior-notice and inquiry provisions in effect give the state and hostile groups a veto over a personal decision, expose interfaith couples to harassment, and violate Articles 21 (life and personal liberty) and 25 (freedom of conscience and religion) of the Constitution.
Archbishop Machado has been among the most vocal critics, arguing the Congress had a comfortable majority in both Houses to withdraw the law immediately, and had explicitly promised to do so.
Congress Vows Action
Karnataka Congress president B K Hariprasad said the government would fulfil its promises. “The conversion law will be reverted to the pre-2022 status (when the anti-conversion bill was passed by the BJP government),” he said at a press conference on Thursday.
“Congress is the party that represents India. We do not stand on caste and religion. We listen to everyone’s opinions,” he added.
The Congress manifesto had promised to repeal all “unjust laws and anti-people laws passed by the BJP government” within a year of assuming power, and to hike the reservation ceiling from 50% to 75%, including restoration of a 4% quota for Muslims.
Reverend Emmanuel of St Paul’s Church, speaking at the convention, put the frustration bluntly:
“The Congress is known for making a lot of promises and thinks that the minority communities are with them… we depend on the Congress to fulfil the basic rights which they are very clear on in their manifesto. Nothing has been done yet, so our churches and other communities have come together to remind them to repeal it. They have been in power for some time now, and this should be taken up in the winter session.”
Muslim Reservation: The 2B Category
For decades, Muslims classified as Other Backward Classes in Karnataka were placed in Category 2B, which gave them four per cent reservation in government jobs and educational institutions. It was not a religion-based quota in the government’s framing, but a quota for socially and educationally backward Muslim communities listed as OBCs.
In its last Cabinet meeting before the May 2023 Assembly elections, the BJP government scrapped the four per cent quota and redistributed it — two per cent each to the politically dominant Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities, by creating new categories. Muslims were to be moved to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quota.
The order was challenged in the Supreme Court, which in April 2023 called the decision prima facie “shaky,” “flawed” and based on a “fallacious assumption,” and stayed its implementation pending hearing. The case remains a key backdrop to the current political demand.
The Supreme Court said the Karnataka government’s decision to scrap the reservation appeared to be on “highly shaky ground” while raising quotas for Vokkaligas and Lingayats by two percent each.
The minority groups now want full restoration of the four per cent Category 2B reservation through an explicit Cabinet and legislative decision — not merely leaving the matter to the courts. They argue that without restoration, thousands of Muslim students and job aspirants remain in legal limbo, while the Congress manifesto promise remains unfulfilled.
The restoration would require revisiting the enhanced quotas for Vokkaligas and Lingayats, two communities that are crucial in Karnataka politics. The Congress has so far avoided a direct confrontation on that redistribution, which critics say explains the delay.
Cattle Slaughter Law: Livelihood vs. Protection
The letter also urged the government to withdraw the Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Act, 2020.
Passed by the Assembly in December 2020 under the BJP government, it imposes an almost blanket ban on the slaughter of cows, calves, bulls, bullocks and buffaloes below 13 years, bans sale, purchase or disposal of cattle for slaughter, and restricts transport of cattle within and outside the state without a licence.
Violation attracts 3 to 7 years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh, and the offence is cognisable.
The letter to the chief minister noted that apart from the impact on the rural economy and various communities dependent on cattle — farmers who need to sell unproductive cattle, Dalit and Muslim traders, butchers, tanners and leather workers — “incidents of attacks, intimidation and violence directed against cattle transporters and traders” were also a cause for concern.
Rights groups say the law has pushed entire communities dependent on the cattle trade into economic distress and created a climate in which vigilante groups feel empowered to stop vehicles, check papers and assault transporters, often with impunity.
The BJP and cow-protection groups say the law protects cattle, which they regard as sacred and economically vital for agriculture, and prevents illegal smuggling to slaughterhouses in neighbouring states.
Karnataka already had a 1964 cow-slaughter law, but the 2020 Act made it far stricter — extending the ban to bulls and buffaloes and raising penalties sharply.
Hate Speech
The fourth demand — firm action against hate speech — reflects a broader complaint: that despite the Congress manifesto promise to take “firm action against individuals and organisations spreading communal hatred,” there has been no dedicated state law or consistent prosecution.
Minority groups want a specific anti-hate-speech legislation, a monitoring mechanism, and action against organisations accused of spreading communal hatred — a promise that was also in the manifesto, which had proposed banning the Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the VHP, a proposal the Congress later softened after a backlash.
For the Congress, the stakes are high. In 2023, it won a decisive mandate partly on the promise to reverse what it called the BJP’s “unjust laws.” Minority voters were a key part of that coalition. The Freedom Park convention was a signal that patience is wearing thin — and that the groups intend to make the winter session a test of whether those promises will be kept or quietly shelved.
The government has so far offered reassurance but no timetable. Hariprasad’s statement that the conversion law will revert to pre-2022 status is the clearest commitment yet, but without a Bill in the winter session, the groups say, it will remain just another promise.
