BENGALURU: The Congress Government on Thursday decided to roll back the previous BJP government’s amendments made to the Anti-Conversion and Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Acts. At a cabinet meeting here, it also decided to remove the changes made by the BJP government in school textbooks, including deletion of lessons on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) founder KB Hedgewar and pioneer of Hindu nationalist political ideology of Hindutva, Veer Savarkar, from this academic year.
The meeting approved a proposal to buy rice from other states to implement the ‘Anna Bhagya’ guarantee which promises 10 kg of rice per person belonging to below poverty line (BPL) families. “These were part of our manifesto,” said Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs HK Patil.
Patil told reporters that they were removing amendments made to the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act (known as the Anti-Conversation Act) that was passed by the BJP government. “We will place this before the legislative session that will start from July 3,” he said.
The amendments by the previous government had increased the prison term from three to five years with a fine of Rs 25,000. It also stressed that if the violation involved targeting minors, women, SC/ST, the prison term would increase from three to 10 years with a fine of Rs 50,000.
The amendment also brought in a jail term of 10 years and a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh for mass conversion. The act had mandated persons wishing to convert to another religion to give a declaration in a prescribed format at least 30 days in advance to the respective deputy commissioners.
The Siddaramaiah government decided to bring in changes in school textbooks for students of Classes 6 to 10.
Small supplementary booklets planned: Minister
Primary and Secondary Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa said, “By the time our government was formed, the textbooks were already printed and had reached children. We cannot print new textbooks at this juncture as it involves huge expenditure. We are therefore bringing the changes in small supplementary booklets, which will be given to schools and teachers will teach accordingly.”
He said the lessons to be changed will be from Social Studies and Kannada textbooks only. He pointed out that they were removing lessons on Hedgewar and Savarkar, and will include some lessons from the previous (prior to the BJP government) textbooks like social reformer Savithribai Phule, a letter written by former PM Jawaharlal Nehru to his daughter Indira Gandhi, ‘Ni hoda marudina’, a poem on Ambedkar and others. “These changes are for this year. We will soon constitute a committee for revision of textbooks which will be implemented from next year,” he said.
Congress, which had opposed the APMC law when they were in opposition, is all set to make changes. Textiles and Agricultural Marketing Minister Shivanand Patil said the APMC Act is not getting the results expected. In fact, the profits in APMCs reduced from Rs 620 crore in 2019-20 to Rs 190 crore in 2022-23. “This law is causing inconvenience to farmers and other stakeholders, including porters.
School textbooks to see more revisions
Karnataka state syllabus textbooks are set to see another change, as revisions have been approved by the state government during a cabinet meeting. Last year, several changes had been made to state syllabus textbooks, particularly in the Class-10 social science textbook.
“The state government has now decided to make immediate amendments in the Class-10 textbooks, as they are being termed as ‘most controversial’. However, changes in the textbooks of Classes 6-9 will be done gradually, in the coming years,” said sources in the education department.