Haryana Home Minister announced on Twitter on Thursday, 26 November, that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state has formed a three-member drafting committee to frame laws on ‘love jihad’ in Haryana. The committee, consisting of IAS Secretary Home, T L Satyaprakash, IPS ADGP, Navdeep Sing Virk and Additional Advocate General Haryana Committee, Deepak Manchanda will study the ‘love jihad’ laws that other BJP-led states have formed as well.
Vij’s announcement to form the committee first came on 17 November when he told news agency, ANI that a stringent law will be enacted to control ‘love jihad’ cases, and a committee will be formed for the same.
Vij said that “with the enactment of this law, strict action will be taken against any person who is found indulging in religious conversion by pressuring, tempting someone or is involved in any kind of conspiracy or tries to do so in the name of love”.
The Haryana Home Minister told Scroll that he had reached out to the government of Himachal Pradesh who had passed a similar law last year to prevent Muslim men marrying and ‘converting’ Hindu women to Islam.
His announcement on 17 November had come hours after Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra said that MP will introduce a ‘love Jihad’ law in the assembly that will be a non-bailable offence with up to 5-years of imprisonment. The MP minister has since then announced that the jail sentence will now be 10-years for couples, and 5 years for clergymen involved in the wedding.
Madhya Pradesh Home Minister further stated that marriages taking place out of fraud or by ‘tempting someone’ for religious conversion will be considered null and void.
Six BJP States May Implement ‘Love Jihad’ Ordinance Soon
The first BJP state chief minister who spoke about bringing in a strict law to curb ‘Love Jihad’ was Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath. In a video recorded by ANI, the UP CM issued a death threat to those who ‘conceal their identity’ and ‘play with the honour of our sisters and daughters’.
Strongly endorsing his party leaders' demand to enact a law to prevent ‘love jihad', Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa also said that the government is already in talks with experts to frame a law that will ban religious conversions for marriages.
Firebrand Assam BJP Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma also warned that if his party comes back to power in 2021 elections, they will ensure jail term for anyone who harasses an Assamese girl or makes her a victim of ‘love jihad’ by hiding his identity.
Maharashtra Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut also said that once the Nitish Kumar led-Bihar government enacts a law against ‘love jihad’, the Maharashtra government would study it and consider its implementation. He said he spoke to CM Uddhav Thackeray about enacting the law after key BJP leaders in the state were seeking a law against it.
So far, six BJP states, Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Assam have talked about enforcing an ordinance against ‘love jihad’.
(With inputs from New Indian Express, ANI and Scroll)
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