Four more Indian states plan to embrace the law that has begun hounding interfaith couples in a country where 14 percent of the 1.3 billion population is Muslim.
Uttar Pradesh, ruled by a firebrand Hindu cleric, is one of the several states governed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Jailed for getting married
Uttar Pradesh police arrested a Muslim man on 2 December, just after the local government minted the law against forced religious conversion, or love jihad.
The state’s opposition Samajwadi Party attacked the BJP, calling it the “Barbarian Janata Party”, as the new crackdown against interfaith couples took hold.
“Will any BJP leader want this to happen to his daughter that on the wedding night the marriage is turned into a police complaint?” party spokesman Ghanshyam Tiwari asked.
Uncomfortable visuals
Also in December, a court in Moradabad city released a woman who converted to Islam and married a Muslim man in July – before the law was passed. She told the court that she was 22-years-old and had chosen to marry of her own free will.
“My husband and brother were arrested when we were on our way to register our marriage,” she said.
Television images showed the couple herded to a police station by men later identified as members of the Bajrang Dal Hindu group.
"Show us the permission you have from the district magistrate to convert your religion,” one of them says as he snatches the marriage documents from her hand. “This law is made for people like you,” says another.
.@OnReality_Check | A Hindu-Muslim couple in Uttar Pradesh, heckled by Bajrang Dal workers. The police arrest the husband.
— NDTV (@ndtv) December 9, 2020
Mariyam Alavi reports on how U.P's new so-called anti 'Love Jihad' law is being used to criminalise interfaith relationships pic.twitter.com/YLCSEqrbul
“We will soon see more such acts of vigilante-ism,” a senior law enforcement officer warned.
At least seven other Muslim men have been arrested this month in Uttar Pradesh in line with the love jihad law, which can punish offenders with up to 10 years in jail.
Some detainees have alleged torture in custody, but police have rubbished the allegations.
War on love jihad
Hindu nationalists argue love jihad is rampant in India.
Madhya Pradesh, the country's largest state, said it would enforce an even more stringent law to fight religious conversions it considered clandestine.
“We have added many provisions, which are not there in laws being enacted by other states,” the state's home minister Narottam Mishra said, adding that convicted love jihadis would have their property seized.
The provisions have been introduced to cover the cases where religious institutions are found indulging cases of Grooming Jihad or forced conversionhttps://t.co/MgcEib5uCi
— OpIndia.com (@OpIndia_com) December 11, 2020
In October, an Indian jewellery brand withdrew a commercial featuring a Muslim man and his Hindu wife after Hindu nationalists insisted it promoted love jihad.
Legal experts Surbhi Karwa and Prannv Dhawan have warned the law could become “a tool for violence against interfaith couples and minorities”.
