After Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh said they are considering laws against interfaith marriages, Karnataka became the fourth BJP-ruled state to take a similar stand.
BJP’s national general secretary in-charge of South India, CT Ravi said Tuesday that the state government would bring a law to ban religious conversion for the sake of marriage. He also said that anyone involved in conversion activity shall face swift and severe punishment.
Ravi recently resigned as the tourism minister of the state after being elevated as the national general secretary in the new team of BJP chief JP Nadda but the resignation is yet to be accepted formally by the Governor.
“On lines of Allahabad High Court’s order, Karnataka will enact a law banning religious conversions for the sake of marriage. We will not remain silent when Jihadis strip the dignity of Our Sisters. Any one involved in the act of conversion shall face severe & swift punishment,” he said in a tweet.
On Monday, deputy CM Ashwath Narayan had also said that the state would examine similar legislation being proposed in Uttar Pradesh before taking any concrete decision on religious conversion.
Last month, the Allahabad High Court dismissed a writ petition filed by a married couple seeking police protection. The high court noted the woman was a Muslim and converted to Hinduism just a month before she got married.
Interfaith relationships, euphemistically called love jihad by Hindu activists, have become a controversial issue in several states where Hindu right wingers allege that Muslim men “lure” gullible women for conversion.
Many experts reject these allegations and say that adult men and women are free to convert under the constitutional right to freedom of religion.
In February, the Union home ministry told Parliament that there was no definition of the term love jihad and no such cases were reported by agencies.
