Echoing Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel asks BJP if 'inter-faith marriages' were 'love-jihad'

Lashing out at BJP's proposed 'love-jihad' law, Chhatisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel on Saturday, asked if 'inter-faith' marriages by several BJP leaders too fell under 'love jihad'. Similarly, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot too accused the saffron party of having "manufactured" the term "Love Jihad" to disturb the communal harmony in the country. Currently, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Haryana have prepared draft versions of the 'Lov-Jihad' bill, while Assam and Karnataka too are mulling a law on the same lines.

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The Love-Jihad law drafts

On Friday, the Uttar Pradesh government said that a strict law against 'Love Jihad' will soon be brought in the state and the department has sent a proposal to the Department of Law. Meanwhile, Haryana's draft law will be based on Himachal Pradesh Assembly's law against conversion by force, inducement, or through marriages solemnised for the "sole purpose" of adopting a new religion. Similarly, the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh is planning to introduce Dharma Swatantrya (Religious Freedom) Bill 2020 in the next session. The bill proposes rigorous imprisonment for the period of five years for luring a person through fraud and forcing marriage by religious conversion, he told reporters and added that such offence will be non-bailable.

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Slamming such laws, Gehlot stated that marriage is a matter of personal liberty and any such law would be unconstitutional. Similarly, Congress leader and Maharashtra minister Aslam Shaikh said such a law would not be imposed in the state. He alleged that the BJP was trying to hide its inadequacies by introducing the legislation on 'Love Jihad'. BJP has accused Congress of being 'pseudo-secular', saying such "planned religious conversions" are widely acknowledged even in the non-BJP state of Kerala. Currently, anti-conversion laws are in force in Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand.

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What is 'Love Jihad'?

Love Jihad is a term referring to an alleged campaign by Muslim men to convert Hindu girls under the pretext of love. NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma has often claimed that Kerala has 'rampant' love jihad, adding that they (alluding to Muslims) were luring women - not just Hindus, but even Christians and forcefully converting them in Kerala. Moreover, while the  National Investigation Agency (NIA) stated that it had found a common mentor in some love jihad cases in August 2017, Kerala police have stated repeatedly that there were no evidence of attempted or forced conversion in such cases.