As the Haryana government prepares to present the state budget in the upcoming budget session of the state Assembly, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij has stated that the government will bring a bill against religious conversions through force or fraudulent means to tackle the menace of ‘Love Jihad’.
“The enactment of this law will prevent any attempt to get religious conversion by force, inducement, bluff of marriage or by any other unethical methods by anyone in the state,” said state Home Minister Anil Vij after presiding over a meeting of the committee tasked with drafting the bill.
Speaking to reporters earlier this week, Vij said, “We have prepared a draft of the bill against religious conversions (through force or fraud) and it will be brought in the coming budget session of Haryana Vidhan Sabha.”
The drafting committee comprises of Secretary, Home-I Department, T L Satyaprakash; Additional Director General of Police Navdeep Singh Virk and Additional Advocate General Deepak Manchanda. The three-member committee to draft the bill was formed last year in November after Anil Vij’s pledge to curb the menace of love jihad in Haryana.
Vij back then was taking a leaf out of the books of Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. Last year, the Uttar Pradesh government under CM Yogi Adityanath had cleared a draft ordinance against love jihad and forceful religious conversions through force or fraudulent means.
While Himachal Pradesh back in 2019, saw its Assembly pass a bill against conversion by force, inducement or through a marriage solemnised for the “sole purpose” of adopting a new religion. Vij had sought information from Himachal Pradesh for the same and it seems that Haryana’s very own bill against love jihad has finally come to fruition.
Recently, the ‘Metro Man of India’ – E Sreedharan stated that the menace of love jihad is real and that he personally cannot ignore the same. Speaking to NDTV, Sreedharan said, “Love jihad, yes, I see what’s happened in Kerala. How Hindus are being tricked in a marriage and how they suffer…not only Hindus, Muslims, the Christian girls are being tricked in a marriage. Now that sort of a thing I certainly will oppose.”
It seems that the efforts to outlaw love jihad are picking pace as the BJP ruled states expedite their respective versions of bills to make forced conversions a crime. After Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, the Haryana government under Manohar Lal Khattar too is setting a precedent for other states of India by bringing a strict law to end the menace of forceful religious conversions once and for all.
