CHITRADURGA: Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment A Narayanaswamy has created a flutter in political circles by alleging that religious conversion of the oppressed sections is being done by giving them biryani.
He told the media that the Karnataka government is repealing The Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021, popularly known as the ‘Anti-Conversion Bill’, and that Andhra Pradesh has registered 90 per cent religious conversions, Telangana 30 per cent, and the Madiga community is specially targeted.
He also said that conversions are taking place in Chitradurga for just a biryani, and it is the poor who are constantly targeted. Perpetrators use poverty to further their cause and convert people. If this continues, it will be difficult for them to survive, Narayanaswamy added.
“Conversion is being done by targeting the oppressed, who will not get any identity. Because of this problem, the then BJP-led state government enacted the Anti-Conversion Bill, but the Congress government withdrew it. Let them do whatever they want,” he said angrily.
On the Union government planning to bring in Uniform Civil Code, the minister said it was welcomed by Muslims too. “It was Ambedkar’s desire that the Constitution should be supreme and be respected, and the state government withdrawing the Anti-Conversion Bill is against the wishes of Dr Ambedkar,” he added.
Narayanaswamy joined the bandwagon of BJP leaders pressuring the Congress government to implement the guarantees it made during elections.
“The Congress, which came to power on guarantees of free rice, power, Gruha Lakshmi and others, shouldn’t give evasive replies that the Centre has not given rice. The Centre distributes rice on the basis of production and stock available, but I don’t know on what basis the state government is making allegations on the distribution of rice, he added.
Ever since the state government introduced Shakti Yojana, there has been a rise in quarrels and accidents, and bus drivers and conductors say there is no infrastructure at pilgrim centres to provide them shelter. But the government is unconcerned about the status of the bus and condition of SRTCs operating in Karnataka, he alleged.
The scheme was introduced without knowing the repercussions, he said and questioned why people of the country have remained poor even after ‘Gareebi Hatao’ was introduced by Congress.