Updated: November 24, 2020 7:48:56 pm
Uttar Pradesh Prime Minister Yogi Aditynath. (Archive)
The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday approved the draft of a strict law to control illegal conversions, which BJP leaders refer to as “love jihad”, in the state.
The ordinance provides for a prison term of 1 to 5 years with a fine of 15,000 rupees for forced religious conversion. For conversions of minors and women from the SC / SC community, there will be a prison term of 3 to 10 years with a penalty of 25,000 rupees.
“In cases of forced mass conversions, the ordinance provides for a prison sentence of three to 10 years with a fine of Rs 50,000. If a person wants to marry after converting to any other religion, they will have to ask DM for permission two months before the marriage, ”said State Cabinet Minister Siddharth Nath Singh.
The approval of the ordinance came at a state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow.
After Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, UP is the third state of its kind to announce the enactment of legislation to curb “love jihad.”
The move comes after the state Law Commission submitted a report on the issue to Adityanath last year, along with a draft ‘Uttar Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2019’, which proposed that “the conversion carried out with the sole purpose of entering into marriage is declared null and void. “
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The process accelerated after Adityanath said recently at a public meeting in Jaunpur that those who are waging “love jihad” should make amends or be prepared for their final journey: “Ram naam satya hai ki yatra nikalne wali hai”.
The move also comes one day after the two-day meeting of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) National Executive Committee meeting ended in Prayagraj.
According to the sources, the meeting for the eastern region of Uttar Pradesh was attended by Adityanath together with Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat and Sarkaryawah Suresh “Bhaiyaji” Joshi. Public contributions for the construction of the Ram Temple and “love jihad” were some of the topics discussed at the meeting.
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The events also come on a day when the Allahabad High Court, while overturning an FIR filed on allegations that a Muslim kidnapped a Hindu woman and forcibly married her, said that “two adults are free to choose their partner “and it is their right to freedom to choose who they would like to live with. The court noted that the judgments in two previous interfaith marriage cases in which it had observed that “conversion solely for the purpose of marriage is unacceptable” were not “good law”.
Meanwhile, at least five opposition-ruled states have condemned the Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana announcements as a usurpation of personal freedom and an attempt to create a communal division in the country.
Criticisms of the move from the UP, MP and Haryana governments were led by Rajasthan’s Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
“Love jihad is a word made by BJP to divide the nation and disturb community harmony.” he said. “Marriage is a matter of personal freedom (and) bringing a law to stop it is completely unconstitutional and will not be upheld in any court of law …”, he had said on Twitter.
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