In India, it’s never a season for communal conflicts since 2014. 2020 has seen a horrible, canine whistle-filled Delhi political race, the deadliest mobs in the capital in 36 years, the communalization of the COVID pandemic by denouncing the Tablighi Jamaat and even the creation of ‘UPSC Jihad’, so maybe we should be amazed it took such a long time for ‘Love Jihad’ to show up.
At regular intervals, exactly when it would appear that there may very well phenomenally be a respite in the collective polarization in this nation, the monstrous apparition of ‘Love Jihad’ raises its head. The question arises when we have separate laws for forced marriage and other criminal offence why do we need a separate law for Love Jihad? But in the wake of such communal distrusts five BJP ruled states are ready to come up with stringent laws for Love Jihad; Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka and Assam.
The need of law arises when we know the existence of a problem when asked what is love jihad central government acknowledged this in Lok Sabha saying “The term ‘Love Jihad’ is not defined under the extant laws. No such case of ‘Love Jihad’ has been reported by any of the central agencies.” Endeavours to research instances of ‘Affection Jihad’ in Kerala and Karnataka – even with the NIA roped in – have discovered no proof of any wrongdoings. The UP SIT examining claimed ‘Love Jihad’ cases in Kanpur has so far needed to close a large portion of the examinations, NDTV detailed, while the excess cases likewise seem to demonstrate just consensual connections. The National Commission for Women likewise has no information on this alleged scourge, even after its administrator talked about the rising instances of it with the Maharashtra Governor. With regards to giving some type of discipline, once more, there are adequate existing laws which apply. A few states like MP as of now have laws against constrained change (which is, let’s get straight to the point, wrongdoing on its own paying little heed to any adoration point to it). In states without such laws, the offence of criminal terrorizing under the IPC would cover this, as it incorporates driving somebody to accomplish something they are not legitimately bound to do so.
When we talk about conversions it’s not limited to Hindu-Muslim but other religion as well. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath featured the issue of strict transformations for marriage regarding ‘Love Jihad’ and alluded to an on-going Allahabad High Court request on this check. However, with regards to “Sham Conversion” and their association with a marriage, there is just a restricted degree to which the state can mediate.
In the world where real problems such as Pandemic, Poverty, Education challenges, threat on freedom and democracy exists Love Jihad is back in the recent discussion, and we’re back to examining this completely unreasonable idea and we are tracing the same facts whether the idea of Love Jihad is created for communal tension or a genuine issue?
