Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel, slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party-led states on Saturday, asked whether inter-religion marriages of family members of BJP leaders will fall under the definition of ”love jihad”.
“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 Chattisgarh CM asked while addressing the media.
Bhupesh Baghel, after the recent debacle over the announcement of laws to curb “Love Jihad” by BJP-ruled states, asked if BJP leaders who were in interfaith marriages “like Subramaniam Swamy and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi” would also be considered to be under the ambit of “love jihad”.
“Love jihad is an attempt at communalising the society, raised with a clear intention of gaining votes in West Bengal election. They want to divide the voters on the basis of religion and attract Hindu voters,” Mr Baghel told the Sunday Express.
Stressing that there are already laws to tackle the issues related to marriage, Mr Baghel said: “This new law is only a political move. How many people’s marriages will they scrutinize? And if they are scrutinizing marriages, would they do it with their own party members as well.”
This comes after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had recently announced that his government will bring a strict law to curb “love jihad” and forcible religious conversion. Before Adityanath, Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government in Madhya Pradesh had said the state would soon have a law against ”love jihad”.
The BJP has been voicing the alleged issue of forced conversion and marriage of Hindu girls with Muslim grooms as “Love Jihad”. However, earlier in February, Home Ministry had told Parliament that no case of ‘Love Jihad’ has been reported by any central agencies. In fact, “the term ‘love jihad’ has not been defined under the extant laws”, Minister of State in the home ministry G. Kishan Reddy had informed in Parliament.
