With law made stringent against forceful conversions also popularly called as ‘love jihad’, Madhya Pradesh’s Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan gave a strict warning to those who indulge in seducing Hindu women to have them convert their religion. Madhya Pradesh now prepares to pass a law that can penalise people involving in love jihad. The law that ensures this safety against love-jihad is called Dharma Swatantrata Bill 2020.
“Government belongs to everyone, all religions and castes. There is no discrimination but if someone tries to do anything disgusting with our daughters, then I’ll break you. If someone plots religious conversion or does anything like ‘Love Jihad’, you will be destroyed,” said CM of Madhya Pradesh to the media.
The law will ensure a jail sentencing for ten years for people marrying with the sole purpose of religious conversion.
Even the religious clerics who solemnise such a marriage would have to face jail too for a term of five years, said the state minister Narottam Mishra after chairing a meeting where the draft of the Dharma Swatantrata Bill 2020 was finalised.
For voluntary conversion for marriage, it will be mandatory to apply to the collector a month in advance, the minister said. The guardians can complain in such cases and anyone facilitating such marriages will be considered an accused and be penalized, the minister said. For institutions which organise such an activity, their registration will be cancelled.
Asked if the government will make the law more stringent, the minister responded in the affirmative.
The term “love jihad is not defined by law”, the Union Home Ministry had told parliament in February, adding that no such case had been reported by the central agencies.
But since last month, several BJP-ruled states have been talking of introducing a similar law. The list includes Haryana and Karnataka. Bihar should also follow suit, union minister Giriraj Singh has said.
Uttar Pradesh, which has a chunk of Muslim population, has been first off the block with an Ordinance or executive order, which says religious conversions that use falsehood, force or an incentive, or take place solely for the purpose of marriage will be declared a crime.
Those who plan to convert after marriage will have to give two months’ notice to the district magistrate. The person converting will have to prove that it was not forced or for marriage. All cases will be non-bailable.
The ordinance came weeks after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath cited an Allahabad High Court order to invoke “Ram naam satya” – a Hindu funeral chant – to issue a thinly-veiled threat to “those who… play with our sisters’ respect”.
Hours before the ordinance was passed, the Allahabad High Court cancelled a case against a man in an inter-faith marriage, saying “Interference in a personal relationship would constitute a serious encroachment into the right to freedom of choice of the two individuals”.
