There Is No Real Evidence of "Love Jihad"
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2020-11-05 15:05:54
About the Author
Two separate incidents have provoked two BJP chief ministers into irresponsibly thinking of introducing a law against the so-called "love jihad". In one incident, the Allahabad High Court, relying upon a past decision, disallowed the appeal of an interfaith couple where the girl had converted to Islam just a month before marriage. The court was of the opinion that conversion just for the sake of marrying was unacceptable. In the second incident, a Muslim man stalked and then killed a former 20-year old Hindu classmate as she refused to marry him. This once again put the focus on what the Hindu right-wing calls "love jihad" through which Muslim men allegedly target Hindu girls, convert them and marry them. The Hindu right-wing organizations allege that this is an all-India conspiracy but is more prevalent in the northern states. But the home ministry has categorically stated in Parliament that there is nothing called "love jihad" as per the existing laws in the country.
Yogi Adityanath, the UP chief minister and Manohar Lal Khattar, his Haryana counterpart, have both said that they are thinking of bringing in a law to prevent "love jihad". Even Karnataka is thinking along the same lines. A law against a woman making a choice regarding her life partner, whether it involves conversion to another faith or not, will be unconstitutional. It will be akin to bringing the khap panchayat mentality in the drafting of laws. Later, the higher castes would talk of "caste jihad" if the so-called lower caste men start marrying their girls and maybe there will even be talk of "community jihad" if girls start marrying outside their community. India is moving ahead in all spheres and there is no need to return to the Dark Ages.
Of course if there was actually a conspiracy by Muslim youths to snare Hindu girls into marriage after conversion, the law would have to be invoked. There are enough criminal laws that would take care of it. There is absolutely no need to enact a special law. But fake videos which are being circulated in social media and inflammatory speeches or pamphlets prove nothing. There are simply not enough reported cases of such conversion and interfaith marriages to suggest a systematic programme or conspiracy. Isolated cases are cases of true love (and sometimes jilted love as in case of the man who killed his former classmate) and are being needlessly publicized to create panic.
