Days after Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh sought to consider enacting laws against the inter-faith marriages to deal with the ‘Love Jihad’ cases, Karnataka has become the fourth state to take a similar step.BJP National General Secretary, C T Ravi took to Twitter saying that the state would enact a law against religious conversions for the sake of marriage in the state. The government would not remain silent when ‘jihadis strip the dignity of women’ in the state, and will severely punish anyone involved in it, Ravi added.
On lines of Allahabad High Court’s order, Karnataka will enact a law banning religious conversions for the sake of marriage.We will not remain silent when Jihadis strip the dignity of Our Sisters.Any one involved in the act of conversion shall face severe & swift punishment.
— C T Ravi ಸಿ ಟಿ ರವಿ (@CTRavi_BJP) November 3, 2020 Ravi resigned as the Tourism Minister of the state after holding the position of national general secretary of BJP. However, his resignation still needs to formally accepted by the Governor.This comes days after the Allahabad High Court’s remark that conversion of a woman solely for the marriage was illegal and unacceptable.The court remarked while dismissing a plea filed by a newly married couple. The couple got married in July, but the family members of the woman were interfering in their affair. The couple had approached the court to direct the police and the father of the woman to stop disturbing their marital life.Deputy CM Ashwath Narayan on Monday had given a similar statement about the state to examine similar legislation proposed in Uttar Pradesh on inter-faith marriages.’Love Jihaad’ is a terminology used by Hindutva groups to allege that Muslim men, either forcefully or by guile, marri Hindu women for the purpose of converting them to Muslims.Many experts reject the term, saying that adult men and women are free to convert under the constitutional right to freedom of religion. According to The Hindustan Times report, in February, the Union home ministry told Parliament that there was no definition of the term ‘love jihad’.
