[pmarc] Fwd: INVITATION: NATIONAL WEBINAR 'THREAT TO FREEDOM OF RELIGION – A CASE OF KARNATAKA'
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Flyer Webinar Karnataka Freedom of Religion.pdf (1,0MB)
Anti-Conversion Law.docx (16,0kB)INVITATION: NATIONAL WEBINAR 'THREAT TO FREEDOM OF RELIGION – A CASE OF KARNATAKA'
on 9th Dec at 5 – 7 PM
Organised by: National Solidarity Forum
Dear Friend,
The Karnataka Government has pthat the Anti-Conversion Bill in Karnataka will be ready by December 5, to be tabled in the next session of the Legislative Assembly beginning from December 13. There is no sufficient time given for any public on such a crucial Bill. In this context, the National Solidarity Forum is organizing a National Webinar on `Freedom of Religion – A Case Study on Karnataka’.
The National Solidarity Forum consists of over 50 organizations and 30 individuals at a national level. It has people from all religions and also those who are not part of any religion. Initially, the forum started in 2009 as a response to the Kandhamal genocide in Odisha. From that time onwards, many significant activities of national and state-level activities were initiated by the National Solidarity Forum, upholding secular values enshrined in the Indian Constitution. The proposed Webinar on the Anti- Conversion Bill is a continuation of such a process.
The Anti-Conversion Bill is primarily targeted against minorities. The first Anti-Conversion Law was passed in Orissa in 1967. The attacks on the Christians began from the 70s onwards, culminating in the Kandhamal genocide in 2007 and 2008. The law gave a justification for the attacks on the Christians. After Odisha, the Anti-Conversion Law was passed in 8 other states in India. In all these states, this law was used to persecute not only the Christians but also the Muslims. Today, there is enough documentation to show that persecution of Christians is taking place in every state and every union territory in India. The proposed law will only make the situation worse.
The Bill is meant to strengthen the propaganda by the Hindutva forces that Christians are converting by force and lure. Since the Indian Constitution has taken a very clear stand on this issue, there is no additional need for another Bill. The Bill does not recognize that faith is a personal affair that cannot easily be forced upon anybody. It also violates the basic tenets of religious freedom in the Indian Constitution.
Even International Forums have taken note of the increase of persecution of Christians in India. In 2020, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to `Countries of Particular Concern) in their report. The US State Department ranked India’s persecution as severe along with Iraq and Afghanistan. During the past seven years, India has fallen from No 31 to 10 in persecution. The report says: `The Christians are persecuted in all areas of public and private life, and anti-conversion laws (currently in nine states, with more considering adoption) are abused to harass and intimidate Christians. Few people are actually convicted under these laws, but cases can drag on for years.
These international observations are also a matter of high concern for the status of Secular India. It is in this context that the National Solidarity Forum is announcing a zoom meeting on ‘Threat to Freedom of Religion – A Case of Karnataka’ on 9th December at 5 PM.
The details of the speakers are:
· Moderator:
Dr. Ram Puniyani, Convenor, National Solidarity Forum
· Inaugural Speech:
Adv. Colin Gonsalves, Designate Senior Advocate, Supreme Court
· Panellists:
1) Bishop Dr. Peter Machado, Archbishop, Archdiocese of Bangalore
2) Ms.Tehmina Arora, Lawyer practicing in the area of constitutional law and human rights with a special emphasis on minority rights and religious freedom
3) Adv. BT Venkatesh Bubberjung, Former State Public Prosecutor, Senior Lawyer, Karnataka High Court
4) Mr.Javed Anand, Journalist, and civil rights activist who founded the Mumbai-based Sabrang Communications
5) Ms.Vidya Dinkar, Bangalore based Eminent Social Activist
6) Fr. Ajaya Kumar Singh, Social Activist, Conferred with Minority Rights Day Award by the National Commission for Minorities
7) Ms. Cyntia Stephen, Dalit Rights Activist, writer, social policy researcher, and an independent journalist
8) Mr.Rajasekharan, Bureau Chief, Lankesh Patrika, and Director, Vidya Liberation Through Cultural Action, Karnataka
· Valedictory Speech:
Dr.John Dayal, Senior Journalist, and Human Rights Activist
The zoom meeting will begin from 5 pm to 7 pm on December 9, 2021. Please find the Zoom link for the Webinar:
Time: Dec 9, 2021, 05:00 PM Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81839146668?pwd=WEFManZlRDRpV00waHNQeTl0S3BFQT09
Meeting ID: 818 3914 6668; Passcode: NSF123
We invite you to participate in it and we also request you to share this invitation with friends who may be interested in attending it.
Dr.Ram Puniyani,
Convener, National Solidarity Forum
K.P.Sasi,
Co-Convenor, National Solidarity Forum
Cell: 8593835669
Ajaya Kumar Singh,
Co-Convenor, National Solidarity Forum
Cell: 8917666294
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Margaret Alva questions PM Modi’s silence on attack against minorities
in India — by Margaret Alva — 13/01/2022
To
Shri Narendra Modi
Prime Minister
Government of India
South Block, Raisina Hill
New Delhi-110 011.
Dear Prime Minister,
I write to you, the Leader of our great Democratic,Secular, Socialist Republic of India, governed by a Constitution which enshrines the fundamental rights and freedoms of Indian citizens, irrespective of caste, colour, race or creed, as a senior concerned citizen who has served my country for 50 years in various capacities.
You are a leader respected nationally and internationally. You travel around the world, calling on world leaders, including His Holiness the Pope, in Rome, proclaiming that India is a free democratic secular state. Your speeches and statements have been praised and extensively reported on, by the global media. Unfortunately, the reality on the ground here, presents a stark contrast to the image you project of India to the global community, especially in the context of minority rights and secularism.
Mr. Prime Minister, across India, highly organised and militant right wing extremist groups are terrorising, attacking and killing innocent citizens in the name of religion. I am appalled at the recent, widely reported statements, made by some religious leaders calling for genocide of non-Hindus, in order to create a Hindu Rashtra. What is even more shocking, is that there is no response or action either by your Central Government, or the State Government that’s controlled by the BJP, of which you are the undisputed leader, or the local administration, to crack down firmly on this virulent, toxic, hate speech, designed to create insecurity and fear amongst millions of minorities, who live here in the country.
From the early days of our freedom struggle, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians and indeed those from many other religious sects and denominations have fought shoulder to shoulder with our Hindu brothers and sisters, to win our freedom and defend our motherland. My parents-in-law, the late Joachim and Violet Alva, were freedom fighters who went to jail and became the first couple in India’s Parliament, she also becoming Parliament’s first woman Presiding officer. There are today thousands of minorities serving the nation in all walks of life, in all parts of the country. Are we now to be treated as second class citizens?
Mr. Prime Minister, how can you close your eyes and remain silent when atrocities on India’s minorities are mounting? Your silence Mr. The Prime Minister is misread as tacit approval and encouragement to the ever increasing violence and intimidation India’s minorities are being subjected to. When will you speak up and put a stop to this madness and violence?
My home state of Karnataka, where I was born and brought up, has boasted of a peaceful inclusive environment that has drawn people from all over the world. This Christmas, the State BJP government has gifted us the draconian “The Karnataka Protection of Right of Freedom of Religion Bill” in “recognition” of our services, which has provisions that have been previously struck down by courts and are clearly violative of the Indian Constitution. It makes all minorities, our institutions, practices, services and charities suspect. Personal liberties of privacy, of religion, of marriage, and decision making, are taken away, and the state becomes the arbiter of our personal lives, making us subject to probes, charges, and jail by the state and its officials, who will interpret the provisions of the law and imprison us
without trial.
We Christians are a disciplined, non-violent, service oriented community. If we were involved in mass conversions, why is our number under 3%? 200 years of rule by Christian colonial powers and work by so called “missionaries involved in forced conversions” should have shown in our numbers, which have been declining. Why then this false propaganda and violence against us? The work of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, for the poor, the sick and the abandoned,all over the world was hailed by Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji and Advaniji, and has brought honour and glory to India. Even she and her sisters have not been spared, with their funds frozen. Why?
Is this the India our freedom fighters fought for? Our Constitution makers sought to create? And the Father of the nation dreamt of, when he beseeched his countrymen to “wipe every tear from every eye”? Is this the India we have struggled over 70 years to build? Rulers and Regimes down the ages have tried to anes and kill Christianity but it has survived and reached all corners of the earth. It cannot be wiped out in India. We are part of this nation’s fabric. Indian blood flows in our veins and we are patriotic citizens who have, and will continue to serve our people and help build our motherland. History shows that Christianity has thrived and spread on the blood of martyrs. Christ taught us to love our enemies, do good to those who would harm us and forgive those who would kill us. This we will do, as we pray each day “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”.
May Jesus Christ bless you my Prime Minister and guide you in your ways. May the love, joy and peace of Christmas remain with us all through the New Year.
Margaret Alva is a leader of the Congress party
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Karnataka State has passed the Anti-Conversion Bill in the Legislative Assembly, despite stiff opposition from all opposition parties. It can not become a law unless it is passed in the upper house. They have announced that it would be tabled on the 14th of this month. The secular and human rights forces have barely ten days to strengthen this campaign. Kindly endorse this campaign, circulate and share among your friends, organisations, media friends and social media networks.
National Solidarity Forum India started this petition to The President of India
REPEAL ANTI-CONVERSION LAWS!
They undermine India’s Constitution, Secular Heritage and Human Rights
We, the citizens of secular and democratic India, are shocked to witness the moves of the state governments ruled by the BJP and other political parties, targeting Christians, Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis and Hindu women using Anti-Conversion Laws in India.
Hindutva elements in various parties, and specially those evolving from the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh and the Hindu Mahasabha, successfully lobbied hard to enact the first Anti-Conversion Law in Odisha in 1967, followed by nine other states in India. These include Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Arunachal Pradesh. In Tamil Nadu, the then All India Anna DMK party, Ms J. Jayalalitha enacted such a law, but withdrew it following a strong protest in the state.
Wherever the Anti-Conversion law, ironically officially called Freedom of Religion Act, was passed, it became a justification for the persecution of the minorities and other marginalized identities. The attacks on the minorities grew sharply in recent years since this law was tweaked and used as a weapon targeting the dignity of Christians and Muslims.
The latest debate on Anti-conversion Law is in the state of Karnataka today, where resistance is building up to ensure that the Bill passed in the Legislative Assembly, does not become law.
For the Hindutva forces, the Anti-Conversion Law as a path towards establishing a Hindu Rashtra in India which would disenfranchise Muslims and Christians, converting the democratic secular republic into a theocratic and xenophobic state.
Impact on Dalits, Adivasis and Women
It is not just Muslims and Christians, the primary targets, this law has existential implications for Dalits, Adivasis, and some sections of the Hindu community. It also targets women’s sexual and social freedom. Any Dalit who chooses to convert to Christianity or Islam constitutional provisions of reservations in government employment, as also in educational institutions. More critically, she or he loses the protection under the Anti-untouchability laws. Current laws all accept conversions to Sikhism, Buddhism or Jainism, as legitimate and with continuing benefits of reservations which they had under the Hindu faith.
Anyone who does choose to join a new religion is now required to prove that he or she was not converted by force, or coercion, inducement or allurement.
These laws are far more draconian than they look at first sight. They target Christianity and Islam They encourage a return to Hinduism. But at the grassroots, they put coercive pressure on Dalits and Adivasis to not profess Christianity or Islam. Coercion and blackmail are implicit in the notorious Article 341 Part 3, which is immediately evoked to take away their rights of reservation and protection. In effect, a Dalit forced by the State to remain in Hinduism.
For Islam and Christianity, it means that while they can personally profess their religion, they no longer have the right to propagate their faith. This goes against Article 25 in the Constitution of India which says people have the “Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion”. Not only does it discriminate against the Christian and Islamic religions, it undermines the secular foundations of the Constitution which treats all religions equally.
Since 2019, this notorious law has also targeted women, taking away their agency in the most personal of issues of their sexuality, and criminalising their choice of a Muslim or Christian as a life partner. Women now require government approval to marry a Muslim or a Christian. The woman risk physical harm and social disgrace as even distant relatives can move the law against an intended inter-faith marriage. The man she chose will be arrested for a non-bailable offence.
In Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the law is being used to prevent interfaith couples from getting married. Hindutva forces are using this law to target the Muslims, rousing communal and sectarian passions against what politician have called `Love Jihad.’
Is Anti-Conversion Law Necessary?
It needs to be underscored that such laws were created as political expediency and for appeasing majority vote banks during elections. Till recent months when it was used in several states against Muslim men, the law was used just for harassing Christian pastors and teachers or principals of academic institutions. Arrests were few and far between. State government has not been able to adduce any data or evidence to justify the laws.
The core, and patronising, argument that underpins all such laws is that the Dalit or the poor has no agency and no understanding, in matters of religion. In all other matters including the right to vote and choose his political representatives to local governments and to Parliament, he or she is deemed to be of sound mind and judgement. This is highly insulting to the intellect and wisdom of India’s Dalits and its poor who have been kept suppressed by social force under the caste system and implemented by threats of force or threat of punishment.
The Indian Penal Code has all too many provisions to address crimes of cheating, bribing and issues such as attempts to disrupt harmony between communities, or creating ill-will among various sections of society.
Anti-Conversion Law - A Violation of Indian Constitution
Top jurists of the country have held this law to be totally in violation of the right to profess, practice and propagate one’s faith. Babasaheb Ambedkar, who chaired the Drafting Committee of the Constitution in the Constituent Assembly, and several subcommittees which discussed issues of the rights of citizens, discussed these issues threadbare before putting them in the statutes.
The Indian constitution provides six broader fundamental rights. Everyone is equal and has equal rights and freedom without discrimination before the law (Art 14-18) & (Art 19-22). The State provides freedom of conscience and right to profess, practice and propagate religion (Art 25-28) as well as cultural & educational rights for the religious minorities (Art 29-30). It is right to equality, freedom, and non-discrimination for every citizen.
The anti-conversion laws violate international covenants and instruments where India is a signatory. Articles 1, 18 & 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Articles 18 &19 of International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Articles 2 & 3 of UN Declaration on Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief spell this out clearly and categorically
For the people of India, the anti-conversion laws discriminate against Christianity and Islam against all other religions, creating an environment of exclusion, hospitality and encouraging targeted hate and physical violence against persons and institutions.
We, from the National Solidarity Forum, are convinced that such discriminatory laws should have no space in a democratic society like India. We realize the need for larger involvement of all secular and democratic people to support the campaign for the withdrawal of such laws. And, therefore, we appeal to all those who respect human rights, dignity, peace, harmony, and justice to endorse this statement against the Anti-Conversion Laws in India.
Together, let us join hands to defend the values enshrined in the Indian Constitution and protection of human rights of the minorities and other marginalized sections in India.
Issued by National Solidarity Forum (NSF)
The National Solidarity Forum (NSF), a network which emerged soon after Kandhamal genocide, has been active during the last 13 years. Many actions followed with the initiative of this forum, with a primary objective to maintain justice, peace and harmony and to protect the Indian Constitution and secular/democratic values.
Initial signatories:
Admiral L Ramdas, Former Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy
Anand Patwardhan, Film Maker
Annie Raja, National Federation of Indian Women
A C Michael, Former Member of Delhi Minorities Commission, Govt. of NCT of Delhi
Ajaya Kumar Singh, Co-convener, NSF
Arundhati Dhuru, National Alliance of People's Movements
Brinelle Dsouza, Core team member, NSF
Debaranjan Sarangi, Columnist and Documentary Film Maker, Odisha
Dhirendra Panda, Coordinator, NSF
Dr. Goldy M. George, Activist, Author, Academician
Dr. John Dayal, Founder Member, NSF
Dr. Ram Puniyani, Convener, National Solidarity Forum (NSF)
Gauhar Raza, Scientist and Poet
Harsh Mander, Author and Social activist
Irfan Engineer, CSSS & NSF
Javed Anand, Jjournalist and Civil rights activist
K. Satchidanandan, Poet, Literary Critic, Former Secretary of Sahitya Akademi
K.P. Sasi, Co-Convener, NSF
Kavita Krishnan, AIPWA
Kedar Mishra, Senior Journalist, Odisha
Lalita Ramdas, Peace, Human Rights anti nuclear Activist
Mallika Sarabhai, Accomplished dancer & choreographer
Mani Shankar Aiyar, Former Minister
Margaret Alva, Former Governor of Goa. Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttarkhand
Medha Patekar, Narmada Bachao Andolan, National Alliance of People's Movements
Prafulla Samantara, Awardee of the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2017
Pritam Singh, Professor Emeritus, Oxford Brookes Business School, Oxford.
Prof. Hiren Gohain, Academician, Literary Critic
Prof. Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, Writer, Acamedician
Rakesh Sharma, Film Maker
Rev. Dr. Peter Machado, Archbishop of Bangalore.
Sandeep Pandey, General Secretary, Socialist Party (India)
Shabnam Hashmi, ANHAD
Sudhir Patnaik, Editor, `Samaddrusti' Odia Weekly
Sushmit Bose, Musician
Tapan Bose, Film Maker
Teesta Setalvad, Advocate, Civil rights Activist and Journalist
Tehmina Arora, ADF India
Vidya Dinkar, Core team member, NSF
Wilfred D’Costa, Founder Member, NSF
William Stanley, Founder Member, NSF
Those who wish to support the campaign can endorse it through this link: