Sanskriti Shukla converted to Islam before she married Javed Khan last year in Haryana’s Faridabad. They had been in a relationship for seven years, but they are now in hiding after threats from Hindutva vigilantes, including the Bajrang Dal and the Bittu Bajrangi-led Gau Raksha Bajrang Force.
These vigilantes call their marriage “love jihad”, a view shared by Sanskriti’s father DK Shukla, who speaks highly of them. He filed a case of forced conversion – under Haryana’s new anti-conversion law – against Javed two months after the marriage in December last year.
To live a normal married life, Sanskriti tried to contact her father “to tell him that I am very happy after marrying Javed and please try to accept our relationship”. But, she says, he keeps repeating that “he will also join Bajrang Dal and will find evidence against love jihad”.
It’s not just Sanskriti and Javed. Consenting interfaith couples are finding it increasingly difficult to get married or live a normal married life in Haryana, either due to threats from vigilantes or misuse of the law. Haryana last year became the 11th state to enact a law on “love jihad” – a Hindutva conspiracy theory that Muslim men lure Hindu women into marriage as part of an organised campaign to make India an Islamic state.
Justifying the Haryana Prevention of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act in the assembly two months ago, BJP leader and chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar pointed to the filing of 127 cases of forced conversion in six districts over four years. The complaints filed before the “love jihad” law were lodged under other penal provisions or as alleged crimes against women.
However, police officers who spoke to Newslaundry suggest there has been a rise in motivated complaints after the passage of the new law.
This story was originally published in newslaundry.com. Read the full story here