A government official in Karnataka was transferred from his posting after a survey that he ordered disproved a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA’s claims of forced religious conversion, The News Minute reported on Thursday.
Y Thippeswamy, the tehsildar, or tax officer, of Hosadurga in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district, had ordered the survey in October after the MLA, Goolihatti Shekar, alleged that his mother had been forcibly converted to Christianity, the website reported.
There were also some social media posts claiming that poor families belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were being offered money to convert to Christianity, according to The News Minute.
However, the officer stated in his report that no person in Hosadurga complained about being forced to convert to Christianity, The News Minute reported. The report added that those who went to churches did so voluntarily.
“I conducted the survey after several allegations of forced conversions in two villages,” the tehsildar told NDTV. “But when I enquired with the people, they said they were not lured with any benefits and converted out of their own will.”
Thippeswamy told The News Minute that he got an order transferring him out of Hosadurga, but no reason was given for the decision.
The officer added: “I have been in this post for just over two years. I had not asked for a transfer, this was a decision taken by them [the government].”
Over the last couple of months, Hindutva groups in Karnataka have on several occasions disrupted the prayer meetings and attacked Christians, accusing them of forcibly converting Hindus to Christianity.
A report released by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties on Tuesday found that the police were complicit in the violence.
The report also highlighted the small share of Christian population in India to deflate the claim of forced mass conversions.
It said that according to the 1971 Census, Christians comprised 2.60% of the population of India. “In 1981 they [Christians] were 2.44%, in 1991 2.33%, in 2001 2.18% and at present, they are 2.30%,” the report said.
The document added that as per the 2011 Census, Christians accounted for 1.87% of the population. “Thus, the statistics do nothing to suggest that the Christian population is increasing,” the report said.
The report pointed out that despite these figures, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai was planning to table an anti-conversion Bill in the Assembly.
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