To curb ‘love jihad’ cases in Maharashtra, the state chief minister Devendra Fednavis has ordered a seven-member committee headed by the director general of police to look into its technical and legal issues.
The Maharashtra’s director general of police will be its Chairperson. Other members include officials from the Women and Child Welfare Department, Minorities Welfare Department, Law and Judiciary Department, Social Justice and Special Assistance Department, and the Home Department.
The decision come after the Maharashtra chief minister met the Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi recently.
The notification released by the state deputy secretary home department Hemant Mahajan reads, “Elected representatives (sitting and former), various organisations and citizens had made representations to the state government seeking enactment of legislation to curb love jihad and forced conversions in the state. Some of the states have already have already enacted the laws. A special committee has been established to study the present situation and suggest measures to curb love jihad, forced conversion and conversion through cheating.”
On February 3, Maharashtra Ports and Fisheries Minister Nitesh Rane said that the government of Hindutva ideology is ruling in the state and it will not tolerate ‘love jihad.’
“We are in the government and if these bearded people do not stop this love jihad, land jihad, and the drama against Hindu society in time, then even those sitting in Pakistan will not be able to recognise you, I guarantee, trapping girls of Hindu religion, converting them, killing them, all these dramas will not work anymore. We will bring the strictest law against conversion in the state, we will not let these green snakes work, they had a lot of fun during the tenure of Maha Vikas Aghadi. Everyone in the government was their father, during Maha Vikas Aghadi they used to raise slogans of Pakistan Zindabad but now the fun will not work,” Rane said.
Violation of freedom, Maharashtra Oppn
However, the decision to create a vis-a-vis law against ‘love jihad’ in Maharashtra has triggered strong criticism by the Opposition parties, especially the Samajwadi Party (SP).
SP Maharashtra president Abu Azim Azmi has called the state government’s decision unfair and a violation of freedom.
“We have no objections; they (Maharashtra government) can make whatever law they want. Muslim boys are also converting to Hinduism, and Muslim girls are marrying Hindus. The Indian Constitution grants this right. They are interfering as they please—what can we do about it?” he said.
Indian states holding anti ‘love jihad’ laws
‘Love jihad’ is a conspiracy theory that accuses Muslim men of intentionally and strategically alluring and entrapping non-Muslim women with the intent to “convert them” to Islam and marry them as part of an “Islamisation project”.
Presently, seven Indian states have laws against ‘love jihad’. These are – Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana.
Most of the above-mentioned states except Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka are governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
But the anti ‘love jihad’ law in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka was constituted when the BJP was in power before the Congress overthrew them in the Assembly elections in 2022 and 2023 respectively. However, the Congress governments have done nothing to change the law.
