Yogi Adityanath government mulls ordinance against 'love jihad'

In an apparent bid to prevent incidents of alleged 'love jihad' (Muslim youths marrying Hindu girls under false pretenses) in the state, the Uttar Pradesh government has started contemplating a law against it.

According to the sources in the government, an ordinance may be brought in to stop religious conversions, specifically aimed at preventing 'love jihad'.

A senior government official here said that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had issued directions for the formulation of a strategy, including bringing an ordinance, to prevent incidents of 'love jihad' in the state.

''The ordinance will bar religious conversions through force, cheating and allurements......it will also cover conversions under false pretenses,'' the official said here on Friday.

He said that the law department was studying the anti-conversion laws in force in other states in the country. ''Currently, anti-conversion laws are in force in eight states....we studying them and will soon bring an ordinance,'' he added.

The official said that the state law commission had also submitted a report last year emphasising the need for a stringent anti-conversion law. The Commission said that the existing laws were not enough to prevent forced religious conversions or conversions under false pretenses.

The Commission had also cited the examples of such laws in some neighbouring countries, the official said.

The decision to make laws to deal with cases of 'love jihad' comes in the wake of several incidents involving the marriage of Hindu girls with Muslim boys by allegedly keeping the girls in the dark about the religion of the boys in some parts of the state.

In some cases, the girls were either abandoned or even killed. A Hindu girl, who was allegedly tricked into marrying a Muslim youth, who pretended to be Hindu, was found brutally murdered in Kanpur district in the state a few days back.

Saffron outfits have been quite vocal against incidents of alleged 'love jihad'. The RSS too had recently indicated that it wanted an effective strategy to prevent such cases.