Amidst Chants of ‘Jai Shree Ram’ Madhya Pradesh Assembly Passes ‘Love Jihad’ Bill

New Delhi, 10 Mar 2021 [Fik/News Sources]: The Madhya Pradesh Assembly has passed ‘Freedom of Religion Ordinance 2021 Bill through voice vote penalising conversion through ‘unfair means’ with arrest under non-bailable provisions and strict  punishment of 10 years of prison.

The bill was introduced to curb the spread of so-called Love Jihad, a bogus theory which says that Muslim men entice Hindu women into love to convert them to Islam for marriage.

The vote on Monday took place amidst chants of Jai Shree Ram by some members of the treasury bench with no objections from the speaker. The state home minister defended the sloganeering when he was questioned by the media. “We will raise the slogan of Ram wherever we are. No one can stop us.”

The new bill replaces existing Freedom of Religion Ordinance 2020 which was enacted in December last year emulating Uttar Pradesh which had passed the controversial anti-Conversion law in November

The bill, the report said, has provisions for annulling marriages conducted by “unfair means” and makes such conversions a non-bailable offence with jail term of 10 years. The onus of proving innocence lies with the accused.

The Congress opposed the bill arguing that it runs against the right to religion guaranteed by the constitution under Article 25, 27, 28.

“Already there are laws for every crime. Everyone is free to choose his faith at his will as our Constitution guarantees it. But this new law has no other aim but to target minorities and those who enacted it want to win praises from their political masters,” Vinay Saxena, a Congress MLA from Jabalpur was quoted in News Click as having said during the debate.

Congress leader Dr. Govind Singh slammed Narottam Mishra, the state home minister, for  proposing the bill just to win praises in Home Minister Amit Shah’s “court”. He said the bill  was on the lines of BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments.

Saxena called the bill “unnecessary” and alleged that the government was shifting focus from issues like unemployment and crimes against women. He said the number of conversions are few compared to “nearly 10,000 cases of crime against women; 5,200 kidnapped girls were rescued in a year” and asked why was the government not bringing a bill to curb violence against women.