On February 14, CM Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government set up a seven member committee led by Director General of Police (DGP) Rashmi Shukla to provide a legal framework to tackle ‘love jihad’ or forced religious conversions. This committee includes members from all the key departments including Social Justice, Women and Child Welfare, Law & Judiciary, Minority Affairs, Home etc and will also review all the existing laws in other states to curb forced conversion or ‘love Jihad’.

The term ‘love Jihad’ is often used by right wing outfits to accuse a Muslim boy of converting a Hindu girl to Islam through marriage, especially after pretending to be a Hindu. The issue of love Jihad became a focal point of the Mahayuti government after the brutal Shraddha Walker murder case. Walker, a 27 year old Maharashtrian woman was murdered in Delhi and her body dismembered by her live-in partner Aaftab Poonawala in May 2022. The accused had then stored her body parts in the fridge before disposing of them in the Chatarpur forest area in the middle of the night. The case had shook the national consciousness and laws demanded to curb fraudulent interfaith marriages. Since the girl was from Maharashtra, the BJP government committed to do something about the menace of love Jihad.

Two years later, buoyed by the thumping majority in recent assembly elections, the Mahayuti government has now sprung into action........

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