Rajasthan Congressional Leader and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday cornered the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the issue of “love jihad” and said the BJP “manufactured” the term to divide the nation.
“Love Jihad is a word manufactured by the BJP to divide the nation and disturb community harmony. Marriage is a matter of personal freedom, bringing a law to stop it is completely unconstitutional and will not be upheld in any court of law. Jihad has no place in love, ”Gehlot said in a series of tweets.
“They are creating an environment in the nation where consenting adults would be at the mercy of state power. Marriage is a personal decision and they are putting a brake on it, which is like taking away personal freedom, “he added. “It seems a ploy to alter community harmony, fuel social conflict and ignore constitutional provisions such as that the state does not discriminate against citizens for any reason,” he also tweeted.
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Gehlot’s tweets condemning the issue come as BJP-ruled states, including Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, are contemplating enacting a law against the “jihad of love,” saying that converting to marriage by force , fraud, lure or instigation shall be punishable by a maximum prison sentence of five years.
Madhya Pradesh has proposed to replace the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act of 1968 with the Madhya Pradesh Dharm Swatantrey (Freedom of Religion) Act, 2020. Under this law, the crime of forced conversion for marriage will be recognizable, which means that the police can arrest someone without a warrant and start an investigation without the permission of the court, and without the right to bail.
If such forced conversion is proven, then the marriage in question will be declared null and void and anyone who attended or was part of the conversion exercise will be treated on par with the main defendant, officials said.
Also read: The government establishes a strict law against ‘forced interreligious marriages’, warns Yogi Adityanath
“Love Jihad” is a term used by right-wing workers to describe the interfaith relationships between a Muslim and a Hindu woman. In February this year, the government told Parliament that there was no definition of the term and that the agencies did not report such cases.
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