Preparations to stop love jihad and forced conversion, Fadnavis government formed high level committee

The Maharashtra government has formed a seven-member committee headed by the state Director General of Police (DGP) to study the legal aspects of the new law against forced conversion and ‘love jihad’ cases. The committee includes secretaries of the departments of Women and Child Welfare, Minority Affairs, Law and Judiciary, Social Justice and Special Assistance and Deputy Secretary of the Home Department. CM Devendra Fadnavis had recently said that after similar laws made in Uttar Pradesh and other states, Maharashtra is planning to bring a law against forced religious conversion. Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Sheikh has opposed the move. He said that the state government lacks statistical evidence for such cases and is politicizing the issue of forced conversion by calling it ‘jihad’. The GR specified the responsibilities of the committee: evaluating the current situation, handling complaints about ‘love jihad’ and forced religious conversions, examining laws of other states, establishing a legal framework, and reviewing legal implications. The document mentions requests from public representatives, organisations, and citizens to prevent ‘love jihad’ and forced religious conversions. The committee will analyse the current situation and recommend measures with regard to ‘love jihad’ complaints and forced conversions while studying existing legal structures in other states to develop suitable laws. “Earlier the government had come up with a proposal saying there were over one lakh cases of ‘love jihad’ in the state, but they could not find a single instance where they could register a police case. There is no data available to support any such claim, and I had raised the issue in the assembly. The government is playing politics on the issue,” Shaikh said.