The BJP government in Karnataka is set to follow the example of Uttar Pradesh with Karnataka Minister and BJP National General Secretary C.T. Ravi on Tuesday declaring that the State 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,” Mr. Ravi tweeted. He said the proposed law would be on the lines of Allahabad High Court's order.
Mr. Ravi’s statement comes three days after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s remarks that his government would bring an “effective law” against “love jihad”, a term used by the Hindu right-wing to target inter-faith relationships and marriages involving a Muslim man.
Mr. Adityanath had also issued a ‘warning’ to those who “played with the honour” of “sisters and daughters” by concealing their identities. If they did not mend their ways, then their “funeral processions” would be taken out, he had remarked.
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister too had referred to a September 23 order by the Allahabad High Court in which it had dismissed a writ petition by a married couple seeking police protection, by pointing out that the girl, who was a Muslim by birth, had converted to Hindu religion just a month before their marriage.
The Court had observed that the religious conversion had taken place only for the purpose of marriage. The court, while dismissing their petition, had also pointed out that in Noor Jahan Begum alias Anjali Mishra case of 2014, it had observed that “conversion just for the purpose of marriage is unacceptable”.
Mr. Ravi, who has been recently given the national organisational responsibility by the party, too has referred to the Allahabad High Court judgment.
