Slamming the BJP-ruled state governments, Kavita said, “They want to create an environment of hate. Hate against the liberty of women and especially against ‘Hindu women’ and hate against Muslim community.”

Mohd Aasif | 

NEW DELHI – A day after the Uttar Pradesh government cleared the draft of a stringent law against love jihad, the All India Progressive Women Association (AIPWA) and the All India Students Association (AISA) have launched a national campaign against it. The campaign is titled ‘Love Azad – a campaign against the lies of Love Jihad.

“In Lucknow, a group of women protested against the law and were detained at the Eco Garden”, according to Meera Singh, Joint Secretary of the state AIPWA unit.

The UP Cabinet on Tuesday had cleared an ordinance to ban religious conversion for marriage which BJP leaders refer to as love jihad. The Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020, also recommends 1-5 years imprisonment if an accused fails to prove that the conversion of the woman was not for marriage or by use of force, allurement etc.

Kavita Krishnan, General Secretary of All India Progressive Women Association, posted a video on social media saying it was inspired by the politics of hatred and division on the basis of religion, and appealed to the youths to join hands with the campaign of Love Azad.

“This law (UP law against love jihad) is against the Constitution and personal liberty and rights of women vested in the Constitution. It is not a law of uniting people; rather, it will divide on the basis of religious biases”, she added.

She believes that courts might stop such laws but they could not wait for courts to interfere. The Allahabad High Court has delivered a verdict on personal liberty and no one can deprive someone from this. “Bachelor adults can marry anyone they want or love”, she quoted the court ruling.

“Reminiscent of the draconian Nuremberg Laws of Nazi Germany, the propaganda based notion of love jihad devised by the Sangh Parivar has been at the helm of anti-Muslim politics in India”, reads a statement released by AISA.

Slamming the BJP-ruled state governments, Kavita said, “They want to create an environment of hate. Hate against the liberty of women and especially against ‘Hindu women’ and hate against Muslim community.”

Talking to Clarion India, Dr. Shivani Nag, a teacher at Ambedkar University, Delhi, said that many men-women would not change their religion if the Special Marriage Act was not so ‘cumbersome’ and did not make them more vulnerable to forceful abductions and killings by families.

Dr. Nag stresses on the point that adult couples have the constitutional right to get married whoever they want, even against the will of their families which is difficult as authorities inform families through a notice of the marriage posted on a notice board in the district magistrate’s office.

“Not just this, you can register only in the office located in the zone in which one of the partners resides and can provide a residential proof of. Hence, if you wish to run away and marry under the Special Marriage Act, you can’t till you have found a place to stay and the residence proof made!”, she added.