Chattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Cabinet Minister TS Singh Deo slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on its recent stance on ‘love jihad,’ a right-wing conspiracy theory that accuses a larger plot by Muslim men to feign love to non-Muslim women and convert them to Islam.
“Family members of several BJP leaders have also performed inter-religion marriages. I ask BJP leaders if these marriages come under the definition of ‘love jihad’?” the CM stated, according to news agency ANI.
Atleast five BJP-led states have, so far, said that they are planning to bring in laws to curb ‘love jihad.’
Deo also called ‘love jihad,’ “an exhaustingly bigoted term coined by BJP carried forward through the media propagandists” in a series of tweets on Friday.
“The hatred and intolerance has crept so deeply that they are now brazenly planning laws against consensual interfaith marriages,” he added.
Emphasising that marriage “is and has always been a personal choice for consenting adults - socially and constitutionally,” Deo stated that despite the ‘attack’ on the sovereignty of India, “we shall stand strong to uphold the integrity of our constitution and this great nation.”
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