The Love For Politics And Hatred For ‘Jihad’

Sep 15, 2014 Tushita Politics 0

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With the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh claiming that he is completely unaware of anything called ‘love jihad’, a common Indian citizen can draw only two conclusions. The first one would be that our home minister is not aware of a burning topic that has triggered a huge communal debate and is ignorant about his own country’s political affairs. Or maybe, he’s just lying. Lying to cover up for BJP leaders who are propagating warnings against the idea or lying because of feeling ashamed of ill-founded party ideologies, however remains unclear.

Going by the definitions set up by Sangh Parivar and Shiv Sena, ‘love jihad’ is a “global conspiracy” according to which the Muslim men “deceive” Hindu women to marry them, with the aim of completely destroying the Hindu culture.

The agenda being rooted for by BJP:

BJP leaders from Madhya Pradesh, UP and Gujarat are leaving no stone unturned for publicising the issue and are constantly issuing statements asking Hindu girls to beware of such “traps” set up by Muslims.

Recently, M Venkaiah Naidu, a senior minister in the Modi government stated that he disagreed with the comments made against Muslims by UP BJP head Bajpayee. He added that it is a common country for both Hindus and Muslims, and they will have to live together in it. Whatever the issue is, leaders from respective communities should sit together and resolve the matter.

As far as the stupor of some of our country’s Hindu netas is concerned, Sakshi Maharaj, BJP MP from Unnao, who had earlier initiated a controversy by stating that ‘love jihad’ flourished through madrasas has now gone further to baselessly say that religious learning institutions have been imparting “education of terrorism.” Issuing one communally sensitive statement after another, the BJP leader seems to very well know the art of staying in news for all the wrong reasons.

From love’s point of view:

It is obvious that a modern-day man would expect to have the privilege and freedom of choosing to love and marry anyone they want. But, if a person insists that his loved one converts to his religion, then this particular picture of “love” is a blemished one. Neither by law nor by morality is there any need to convert to another faith or acquire a different style of living to prove one’s loyalty or love to somebody from a different religion. For a happy marital life, one should just remember that adaptation is different and can be easily discerned from transformation.

The main point of contention here for the leaders, politicians and people is that does the freedom to practice any religion connote the freedom or the right to seek and propagate religious conversions?

 “It’s illegal and disgraceful”:

Islamic seminary at Deoband has taken a tough and clear stand on the issue. In a statement issued by the seminary last week, it was said that if any Muslim individual tries to lure away or cheat any girl that comes from a different faith and tries to convert her through dubious tactics and means, then their marriage is an illegal and illegitimate act.

The Muslim leaders and scholars completely support the seminary’s statement. Faculty members at Aligarh Muslim University reiterated the institution’s voice and urged the media to watch out from falling prey to communal politics, and avoid sensationalising out-of-the-way cases of interreligious marriages.

The seminary went ahead and said that the issue was being blown up by some political groups to instigate polarisation in the society.  In a joint statement by Dr. Ahsanullah Fahad, Mufti Zahid Ali Khan, Chairman, Department of Sunni Theology and Dr. Mohd Saleem Qasmi said, “The Deoband diktat on the topic of ‘Love Jihad’ should finally curb all the doubts that people have had regarding the religious validity of such acts of transgression.”

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• Love Jihad

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