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After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state governments of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh (UP), the Madhya Pradesh (MP) government has announced that it will soon table an anti ‘Love jihad’ bill in the State Assembly. The state government has joined the others from the same political party in taking decisive steps to give legal recognition to the term “love jihad” which has been used by the right wing to attack interfaith couples.
It mostly targets Muslim men who are in a relationship with a Hindu woman. The right wing has invoked the term each time a Hindu woman is linked with a Muslim man, even if it is in a fictional depiction in an advertisement or film. It is almost a war cry when a Hindu woman is the unfortunate victim of a heinous crime such as rape, molestraion, sexual or dowry related harrasement. State governments have all but officially declared ‘love Jihad’ a crime, even though the term is not recognised in the Indian Penal Code.
Now, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra has confirmed that a “love jihad” bill will soon be introduced in the state Assembly. Once passed in the Assembly, it will include a five year rigorous imprisonment for those found violating it. The offence will be cognisable and non-bailable, said Mishra, adding that a provision to “declare marriages taking place forcefully, out of fraud or by tempting someone, for religious conversion, null and void,” will be included in the Bill. It will also consider those assisting “in committing this crime” as a “a party to the crime,” Mishra told the media.
सरकार प्रदेश में धर्मांतरण के लिए विवाह पर रोक लगाने वाला विधेयक विधानसभा के अगले सत्र में लाने की तैयारी कर रही है। इसे गैर जमानती अपराध घोषित कर मुख्य आरोपी और इसमें सहभागियों को 5 साल की कठोर सजा का प्रावधान किया जा रहा है।@BJP4MP @mohdept @DGP_MP pic.twitter.com/59bTrpl6Pn
— Dr Narottam Mishra (@drnarottammisra) November 17, 2020
As reported earlier across the media, MP’s CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan had already hinted at this new legislation against “love jihad”. The politicians are not clear on how they will propose to ignore the right to marry a person of one’s choice is guaranteed enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution. Earlier this year, the Government informed Parliament that no cases of ‘love jihad’ have been reported by any of the central agencies and the term was not defined under any existing law. Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy had said Article 25 of the Constitution guarantees the freedom to profess, practice and propagate religion subject to public order, morality and health. Various courts, including the Kerala High Court, have upheld this view.
“The term ‘love jihad’ is not defined under the extant laws. No such case of ‘love jihad’ has been reported by any of the central agencies,” he had said in Parliament in reply to a written question.
The communal and patriarchal bogey called ‘Love Jihad’, created by right wing Hindutva groups, and legitimised by politicians, had got a booster dose of support recently from the Haryana government which declared it may soon bring in a law to check ‘love jihad’. The state’s chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had said, “Both the Centre and the state government are taking the love jihad issue very seriously… legal provisions are being contemplated so that the guilty cannot escape and no innocent person is punished.”
Haryana’s Home Minister Anil Vij called ‘love jihad’ a disease that needed a cure, “so we can save young girls.’ Vij and Khattar’s anti ‘love jihad’ proclamations come close on the heels of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath’s ‘warning’ to Hindu-Muslim couples contemplating marriage. Adityanath had announced that his government was working to bring a strict law to curb incidents of “love jihad”. Both states have been in the limelight for a rise is crimes against women, inlcuding stalking, rape, murder, and molestation, espcialy against Dalit women and teenagers. However, men leading the governments in the state seem to feel that targeting interfaith couples who marry consensually under the law of the land should be given priority instead of strengthening the implementation of existing laws to ensure security and safety for all citizens.
Related:
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Ram naam satya hai: Adityanath’s open threat to those who attempt ‘love jihad’