Daily Times

Like illegal annexation of Kashmir was not enough, giving non-residents domicile of the region was not enough, violation of minorities, mainly Muslims, under CAA and NRC was not enough; Indian government has troubled itself by creating a controversy out of a decade-old debate over “Love Jihad”. Ever since coming into power the BJP has not been able to free itself of shackles of its parochial mindset against minorities in India, specially the Muslims.
Claiming to be the largest democratic country in the world, India, under BJP, has proved itself nothing more than a dark spot on the face of democracy. The government keeps on amusing itself by passing controversial legislation despite facing criticism at home as well as from states globally. Recently, the 57 members, OIC, asked India to refrain from altering the demographic structure of India-administered Kashmir that India unilaterally annexed last August. Protests are being made by thousands of Indian farmers against controversial agricultural laws and international community has condemned India for stopping those farmers from protesting, which in-fact is their democratic right. Therefore, India claiming itself to be the largest democracy is absurd.

The concept of “Love Jihad” laws and its purpose revolves around stopping inter-religious marriages in India. An ordinance passed by the UP government will demand the individuals to be married to inform the government two months prior to their marriage and make it public. Police inquiry will also be initiated- how farcical. The theory underlying is that the Muslim men must be stopped from marrying Hindu girls because then the girl changes her religion and becomes a Muslim. BJP, outlandishly, accuses Muslim men of forcefully changing religion of Hindu girls. However, the question of interest is if this claim is backed by any reliable data. A senior Indian journalist, Karan Thapar, in a talk with a BJP member, said that the Minister of Home Affairs of India, Kishan Reddy, in February this year addressed the Lok Sabha saying that no such case of “Love Jihad” has been reported by any of the central agencies. This statement is self-explanatory about this controversial term and laws associated with it. It clarifies that not reality but indeed BJP’s destructive personal ambitions are behind this law. Unleashing his anger on the absurdity of the law, the journalist moved on to repeatedly use harsh words such as “how dare he” referring to CM UP, Yogi Adityanath, pass such a law; a law that denies an individual his fundamental right to adopt a religion. The matter, very serious, sounds unreal too. How and why will any government call the public for any objections on marriage of two individuals of legal age? When asked if the adult and of legal age, Hindu girls, were fools that they would fall into this so called trap of love jihad, the BJP leader could not give a reasonable response. Let’s not forget the Hadiya case in which the Supreme Court of India restored Hadiya’s marriage to a Muslim, after the Kerala Court had annulled it. The Supreme Court found it no problem that an adult 25 years old Hadiya had married a Muslim boy and she said that she was not forced or lured. So a healthy precedent was set that marriage is indeed a matter between two individuals of legal age.

The whole fiasco of “love jihad” is not only legally wrong because it violates right to religion, freedom to make independent decisions, but also morally and ethically wrong. It depraves two people who love each other from getting married with ease. The laws associated with this hysteria of BJP add hindrances and obstacles to a process that does not harm the society but is in-fact solely a private matter. Whilst BJP’s spokesperson says that a person should be given the liberty to keep his or her own religion in the contract of marriage, he fails to understand that likewise the person should be given the liberty to change the religion and it should not be made a big deal of. Forced conversions are illegal be it of any religion but it is plainly horrendous to put all forced and all by choice conversions into one basket; that is what the BJP has done.

There can be no justification for these monstrous ideologies and policies of the fascist BJP regime in India. Whatever, the ruling party says about the law not being targeted at Muslims, is all lies. They say that the law applies to all religions. One may ask then why the name of “Love Jihad”. Why all debate about how Muslims are forcefully converting Hindu girls, while not giving adequate evidence. The problem of forced conversions wherever happening could have been dealt with appropriate legislation instead of creating a nation-wide propaganda against Muslims. Clearly the BJP has projected itself on extremist lines of Hindutva. The “Love Jihad” laws are nothing more than a continuity of oppression of Muslims; an oppression which started in Kashmir in August, 2019 followed by the controversial Citizenship Ammendment Act and the maintaining of notorious National Register of Citizens. The world is observing the undemocratic acts of the so-called biggest democracy of the world. Not only people abroad but the liberals and the civil society at home criticize the Modi led government for its policies and exhibit uneasiness about what is becoming of India.

The writer is a freelancer and can be reached at alikhalid.4@yahoo.com