The Central government on Tuesday confirmed that it has no plans to bring a central anti-conversion law to curb inter-faith marriages in the country, Times Now reported. It further stated that such laws are concerns of the state governments.
“The prevention, detection, registration, investigation and prosecution of offences related to religious conversions are primarily the concerns of the State Governments,” the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) noted, responding to a question in Lok Sabha.
“The Central Government does not intend to propose a central Anti-Conversion Law to curb interfaith marriages,” it further stated.
The controversial anti-conversion laws, infamously known as “love jihad” laws, were brought into force by BJP-ruled governments of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Meanwhile, Assam and Karnataka governments have also announced they would soon bring in a similar law to curb inter-faith marriages.
The term ‘Love Jihad’ is a hate campaign and false propaganda run by extremist Hindutva forces claiming that Muslim men lure non-Muslim girls, and trick them into marriage and force them to accept Islam.
The term ‘love jihad’ is not defined in current Indian laws. During a Parliamentary session in the Lok Sabha in February 2020, Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy had said that no case of ‘love jihad’ has been reported by any of the central agencies.
In November, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe cases of “love jihad” in Kanpur, submitted a report stating that they did not find any evidence of foreign funding or organised conspiracy as claimed by Uttar Pradesh government and chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
In the same month, days after the National Commission for Women (NCW) Chairperson spoke of rising cases of “Love Jihad”, NCW later said it had “no data” of love jihad cases in response to an RTI filed by a Bengaluru-based activist, throwing its own earlier claim in this regard into question.
“As per record, no specific data under the category of complaints related to love jihad is maintained by the NCW,” the statement read.
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Rushda Fathima Khan is the Staff Reporter for The Cognate.
