Newshour - BJP passes 'draconian' anti-conversion law in Karnataka - BBC Sounds

The assembly in the southern Indian state of Karnataka has passed a bill to prevent what the government there describes as unlawful religious conversions. It stipulates up to 10 years jail time for those found guilty of converting people to other religions by what it calls "fraudulent means". Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor of the Indian news website, The Wire, explains.

"They define fraudulent as conversion in response to so-called 'allurement', coercion and even marriage", whereby one of a marrying couple may convert to the other's faith. All of those cases would be deemed illegal under this law, and there would need to be other reasons in apart from marriage for someone to convert.

He goes on to say that similar laws have been passed in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh which are also run by the BJP party, and is driven, he believes, by their political agenda "of presenting the Hindu community as under siege by Muslims and Christians and to foster a sense of insecurity." There have been reports of an increase in attacks on Christians since the law was mooted. He does not believe the numbers of Hindus involved in conversions justifies these "draconian" measures and that this is part of a propaganda campaign "criminalising what they call 'love jihad' which is itself a fiction".