1. Karnataka Cabinet scraps anti-conversion law, recalls chapters on RSS founder from textbooks
The Karnataka Cabinet on June 15 decided to roll back the controversial Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2022, (popularly called the anti-conversion Bill) introduced by the previous BJP government. Amid vociferous protests, the Basavaraj Bommai-led government had passed the Bill in September 2022 with an aim “to prohibit conversion by misrepresentation, force, allurement, fraudulent means, or marriage.”
In the same meeting, the Cabinet also approved the revision of Kannada and Social Science textbooks of Class 6 to Class 10 for the current academic year, doing away with the changes brought in by the Rohith Chakrathirtha-led committee. It has given its consent to remove chapters on RSS founder K.B. Hedgewar and Hindutva ideologue V.D. Savarkar, while adding chapters on Savitribai Phule, Nehru’s letters to Indira Gandhi and poetry on B.R. Ambedkar.