Ex-babus express their displeasure over UP Love Jihad Act

New Delhi, Jan 2: As many as 104 former bureaucrats have expressed their displeasure over the Love Jihad act passed by Uttar Pradesh Government to check the increasing incidents of religious conversion by deceit and violence associated with them. They have written to the State Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath demanding to withdraw this ‘draconian’ act.

Some of these bureaucrats include former NSA Shivshankar Menon, former Foreign Secretary Niruapama Rao, former advisor to PM TKA Nair, IPS (Rtd) J F Reibero, former Prasar Bharti CEO Jawahar, social activist Harsh Mandar and Aruna Roy.

All of them are not in tune with the RSS-BJP line of ideology on matters like Love Jihad and religious conversion and violence associated with it. They subscribe to the left-liberal and secular ideology and accused the UP Government that this act has made the state a centre of hatred, discrimination and fundamentalist politics.

These bureaucrats in their letter that punitive action was taken against some people belonging to a particular religion and arrests were made. These arrests and the way they were arrested pose a grave threat our democracy. After the Governor’s nod on November 27 last year, the police have registered over a dozen FIRs in the state. These bureaucrats further said that the action should be taken on the basis of strong evidence otherwise the State will have to face judicial reprimand in these cases.

Following the footsteps of UP government, many state governments are now contemplating on similar legislation to curb the increasing cases of love jihad, religious conversions, women’s sexploitation and violence. Following Uttar Pradesh Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh governments have initiated steps to effective implementation of such legislation in their respective states.

Actually, the issue of Love Jihad and the religious conversion and violence and sexploitation associated with this was first raised by the Catholic Church. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), Syrian Malabar Church etc. have raised this issue first as they noticed that most Christian girls were victims of this Love Jihad in Kerala. The activists of ‘Campus Front’ a branch of fundamentalist Islamic organization “Popular Front” have allegedly converted many Christian and Hindu girls to Islam by trapping them in their love traps.

According to the CBCI in the last two decades the number of love jihad victims who faced religious conversion runs into thousands. Due to the pressure of the Christians V S Achuthanandan, the first Communist chief minister raised this issue. His own words “one Muslim party trying to Islamize entire Kerala by using money and marriage”, amply proved the seriousness of this love jihad phenomenon.

It is true that the society is changing fast and no one is ready to follow the rules of nature to live a peaceful and contented life. Permissiveness has become a major challenge. The society is silent and parents are reluctant to shoulder their responsibility. The girls are confronting number of challenges in the society, at workplaces, and media has changed our outlook towards marriage institution. This has resulted in growing cases of Love Jihad.

This menace could be dealt with effectively only with the help of such a law and strengthening our families.