By Mrityunjay Bose
In line with the Hindutva ideology, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led MahaYuti-NDA government in Maharashtra has set the ball rolling toward enacting a law on love jihad.
The term “love jihad” is often used by Hindu groups and the BJP to describe an alleged campaign by Muslim men to convert Hindu girls under the pretext of marriage.
For Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who leads the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP alliance, getting such a law passed is unlikely to be a challenge, given the brute majority his government enjoys in the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
Last week, the state government formed a seven-member committee headed by the Director General of Police to examine the legal and technical aspects of framing a law on love jihad.
If all proceeds as planned, the bill could be introduced during the monsoon session of the Maharashtra legislature in Mumbai.
This move follows long-standing demands from several BJP leaders and right-wing groups such as the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti and Sanatan Sanstha. It also comes ahead of local body elections in which voters in all 29 municipal corporations and a majority of the municipal councils—accounting for over 60 per cent of the state’s population—will exercise their franchise.
This story was originally published in deccanherald.com. Read the full story here.
