Siddaramaiah’s statement comes as Yediyurappa announced that his government would make a decision on criminalizing “religious conversion for the sake of marriage” within three days.
The leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly and former Chief Minister of Karnataka (CM) Siddaramaiah on Saturday lashed out at the BJP government led by BS Yediyurappa for proposing the enactment of legislation criminalizing “love jihad”. Siddaramaiah said the move was to “mislead” the people of Karnataka and that there is no legal definition for “love jihad” and that there is no proof of its existence.
“The Chief Minister of Karnataka has announced the promulgation of a law to prohibit ‘love jihad’. This is nothing more than the BJP’s frivolous attempt to divert public attention from its miserable administrative and political failures, “said Siddaramaiah, while adding that the state government intended to” ignite the communal flare for its political achievements. “
.@ BJP4India he wants to mislead people with his misinterpretation of the recent Allahabad High Court ruling.
The court only says that conversion for the sake of interreligious marriage is wrong, but “no” says that interreligious marriage itself is wrong.
3/4
– Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) November 6, 2020
“’Love Jihad’ is not defined in any legal document. This fact is accepted in Parliament by the BJP’s own Minister of State for the Interior. So on what basis will Yediyurappa enact a law? Siddaramaiah asked.
The former Chief Minister said that Yediyurappa is misleading people by misinterpreting the observation of the Allahabad High Court in a case it recently settled.
“The court only says that conversion for the sake of interreligious marriage is wrong, but ‘does not’ say that interreligious marriage itself is wrong. It is regrettable that the Chief Minister of Karnataka and Ministers are taking inspiration from the CM of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adithyanath, ”said Siddaramaiah.
He went on to claim that the BJP government was trying to dislodge communal harmony in a state that has been liberal and progressive. Karnataka is known for its liberal and progressive ideas. Uttar Pradesh is known (for its) ‘Goonda Rajya’ and can never be an inspiration or a model state, ”said Siddaramaiah.
Siddaramaiah’s reaction comes a day after CM Yediyurappa announced that a decision would be made within three days regarding the introduction of legislation to ban “love jihad.” “I don’t care what other states are doing. But in my state, I want to bring legislation to criminalize religious conversion for the sake of marriage. We are doing this to stop love jihad. (Love jihad) must be criminalized, ”Yediyurappa told reporters on the sidelines of a press conference held on Friday afternoon.
The Allahabad High Court had observed last week in a case that it was seeing that it is “regrettable that” religious conversion is taking place for the sake of marriage “and that it should not be. The court made the observation when resolving a petition. submitted by a couple, who claimed that the woman’s family was threatening them because she had married a Muslim and converted to Islam.
Shortly after, on November 4, the UP government of Yogi Adityanath had said that it would introduce legislation that criminalizes “love jihad.” Love jihad is a theory perpetuated by right-wing Hindu groups. However, no such phenomenon has been shown to exist during the course of multiple investigations by law enforcement.
It is important to note that no term called ‘love jihad’ is defined in current Indian laws, it is still a theory perpetuated by right-wing groups in India. During the parliamentary session at the Lok Sabha in February 2020, the Minister of State for Internal Affairs, G Kishan Reddy, pointed this out and even acknowledged that none of the central agencies have reported any cases of ‘love jihad’.
