BJP announces a law against Love Jihad in Karnataka
Chief Minister calls religious conversions to marry a “matter of concern”. Sajan K George fears that the law could be used against the Christian minority. For the Catholic Church, marriages contracted under fraudulent terms are invalid.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) – Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa announced yesterday that his government is in talks with experts to draft a bill that will ban religious conversions for marriage in order to prevent the "Love Jihad".
Addressing a BJP state executive committee meeting, Yediyurappa said: "Karnataka has always considered Love Jihad a matter of concern. I agree with my party colleagues that we need a law to ban religious conversions for the sake of marriage.”
The chief minister noted that he had spoken to officials and experts on the matter. “Most of them agree that the State needs a robust legal framework to prevent such conversions,” he said. “For some, even love has taken the form of Jihad,” he added.
Not everyone agrees. “BJP-ruled states enact laws to ban what they call Love Jihad; however, in India such laws are a gross violation of adult citizens’ fundamental rights to freedom of conscience and religion (Article 25 of the constitution), as well as their fundamental rights to privacy and freedom (Article 21),” said Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), reacting to the announcement.
Speaking to AsiaNews, he explained that “these BJP leaders ostensibly speak about Love Jihad, but, if this [ban] is made legal, the Christian community will also be targeted”.
For the GCIC president, “This is another tool to harass minority communities. Since it is devoid of context, it can be used by right-wing political forces to further sectarian agendas of harassment and intimidation of minority communities. "
In India, the Special Marriage Act allows secular marriage, even between people of different faiths. But in Uttar Pradesh, the court rejected religious conversion by marriage for personal benefit, describing it as unacceptable.
While rejecting a petition filed by a couple, the Allahabad High Court found that a Muslim woman had converted to Hinduism and subsequently married according to Hindu rituals within a month.
In another BJP-ruled state, Madhya Pradesh, the local Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, said that his government will enact a strict law against those who conspire to convert people to their religion by marrying them in the name of love.
"We will not tolerate this,” he stated. “We have started the procedure and this law will soon come into force."
In secular India, eight Indian states have anti-conversion laws that violate basic human rights, target minorities and limit the fundamentally personal decision of changing religion.
"Regrettably, rights should apply equally to individuals of all religions, but for the majority community of India, minorities are second-class citizens," lamented Sajan K George.
According to Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore, "The idea of converting for the sake of marriage is obviously something to ponder upon.”
In principle "religion teaches that faith and belief are personal matters connected to the individual and his God. Faith is something subjective and personal, but marriage involves two people who cannot be forced.
“Adapting myself to a new faith is for my sake and my God.” Yet, “One should never forget that no religion can force or impose its ideas by snubbing personal understanding and reasoning.”
According to Canon Law (1098), a marriage is invalid if “a person marries enticed by deceit, perpetrated in order to secure consent”. This concerns “some quality of the other party” and can “seriously disrupt the partnership of conjugal life”.
For the prelate, a marriage is already invalid if a person intends to marry only to convert or establish a family on the condition that the other person converts.
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24/11/2020 14:20
03/12/2020 15:12
