The BJP-ruled Gujarat government too may bring in laws to prevent what is known in right wing parlance as ‘love jihad’, marriage of a Hindu woman to a Muslim man. BJP governments in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have recently enacted laws to stop conversion of Hindu women through marriage to Muslim men.
Deputy chief minister Nitin Patel said that the Gujarat government is examining the laws recently implemented in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. He was speaking to journalists at an event by the Viswa Hindu Parishad (VHP), organised to launch the fundraising drive for construction of the Ram Temple.
Patel said that the laws enacted in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are meant to curb “forced religious conversions through marriage”. But, long before the laws were enacted in UP and MP, foot soldiers of VHP and Bajrang Dal in Gujarat were active in stopping what they thought to be ‘love jihad’, ever since the BJP came to power here in 1995. The government has received many representations about such marriages and forced conversions, he said.
The Gujarat Government is studying the long-term effects and legal sanctity of the laws enacted in UP and MP, said the Deputy chief minister adding that a final decision would be taken at the appropriate time.