A bill that was introduced with much fanfare, but in spite of all the posturing by Karnataka CM Siddharamaiah, the Anti-Superstition bill was never passed by the state assembly.
As the state inches closer to election, Siddharamaiah has once again raked up the issue of the bill.
The much diluted and delayed Anti-Superstition Bill is likely to be tabled in the Karnataka state assembly in the November-December session, according to media reports.
"Our government is committed to bringing a law to curb superstition. We are confident that it will be passed in the next session," CM Siddaramaiah told reporters in the national capital on Saturday.
Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimmappa, who is heading a sub-committee tasked with creating the new draft, said the new bill will not have many of the original provisions.
The Karnataka Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifices and other Inhuman Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Bill, which was deemed to pronounce practices such as astrology and animal sacrifice illegal in its original form, will be scrutinised by the state government’s law department, he said.
TNM had reported in July that CM Siddaramaiah, who had proposed this bill, had faced opposition from not only the BJP and religious groups but also from within his own party.
Elections are to be held in the first half of 2018 with the possibility of an early election ruled out.
“The bill has been Siddaramaiah’s project since he came to power and he is determined to table it during the winter session. Several stringent provisions of the original bill had been dropped due to difficulty in enforcement. Practices like ‘made snana', have been excluded,” Thimmappa had told in July.
In December 2016, the CM had blamed ‘vested elements’ for blocking the bill against superstitious practices.
BJP’s Leader of Opposition in the Vidhana Parishad, KS Eshwarappa, had openly opposed the bill by saying it is against the beliefs of Hindus and interferes with their freedom of religious beliefs.
“Some of the practices in the bill have been part of the Hindu tradition for generations and it will curb their freedom of practising any religion. It is a breach of fundamental rights,” Eshwarappa said on the floor of the House.