Former Governor Margaret Alva wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing her concerns over the proposed anti-conversion law in Karnataka and lack of “response or action” by the Centre against attacks on minorities.
"Mr Prime Minister, how can you close your eyes and remain silent when atrocities on India's minorities are mounting,” the Congress leader asked Modi in a four-page letter.
She said his silence is “misread as tacit approval and encouragement“ to violence against minorities. “When will you speak up and put a stop to this madness and violence?"
The former union minister said that the 'Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill' is draconian and includes provisions previously struck down by the courts for violating Constitutional norms. "It makes all minorities, our institutions, practices, services and charities suspect," she wrote.
The Bill is yet to become a law as it awaits passage in the Karnataka Legislative Council, the upper house.
Personal liberties of privacy, religion, marriage and decision-making are taken away by the proposed legislation, she wrote. “Is this the India we have struggled over 70 years to build?"
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