The Maharashtra government’s decision to constitute a panel to track interfaith and intercaste couples has received Opposition backlash but for the ruling coalition of the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led faction of the Shiv Sena, it dovetails with its larger political objectives in the run-up to crucial local body elections. These polls will set the tone for the crucial Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in 2024.
According to political observers, the 13-member committee led by state Women and Child Development Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha, a former Mumbai BJP chief, will set the ground for a future bid to introduce an anti-religious conversion Bill. At least nine states — Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Odisha — have anti-conversion laws in place.
Since the Shraddha Walkar murder came to light — she was brutally killed by her live-in partner Aftab Poonawala — there has been a clamour from the Hindutva brigade, including in Maharashtra, for more stringent laws governing interfaith relationships, or what it terms “love jihad”. It is a term often used by the Hindu right wing to allege a ploy by Muslim men to lure Hindu women into religious conversion through marriage.
The BJP and the Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena led by CM Shinde, according to insiders, believe there is a need to put in place a robust mechanism to tackle what it terms as instances of atrocities in interfaith and intercaste marriages and relationships. Last week, asked if the state would pass a law on “love jihad”, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said the state government was studying laws on religious conversions passed by other states and had yet to take a call on such a law of its own.
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