“Several laws already exist in this connection. The BSP demands that the government reconsider the new law,” Mayawati said.
On Monday, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati, asked the Uttar Pradesh government to reconsider its new anti-religious conversion ordinance apparently aimed at curbing cases of “love jihad”. On last Saturday, the law had become applicable in the state and a case has already been registered.
“The new ordinance introduced in haste by the UP government against love jihad is riddled with doubts since religious conversion through compulsion or fraud has found no acceptability or respectability anywhere in the country,” the BSP supremo said in her tweet in Hindi.
“Several laws already exist in this connection. The BSP demands that the government reconsider the new law,” she further added.
Earlier on Friday, Anandiben Patel, the governor of Uttar Pradesh, gave a nod to an ordinance against forcible or “dishonest” religious conversions. The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020 has been promulgated with the approval of the Governor, the officials informed.
Last week, at a meeting of the state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow, the ordinance was approved and was sent to the governor for approval.
“The UP Cabinet has decided to introduce an ordinance against unlawful religious conversions,” State Cabinet Minister Siddharth Nath Singh had said, adding, “The way in which religious conversions are done using deceit, lies, force and dishonesty is heart-wrenching, and it was necessary to have a law in this regard.”
This comes shortly after the Allahabad High Court, in an important verdict, had said that two adults have the right to choose their life partner. The law allows two adults to live together, whether they are of the same or opposite sex, the court had said, making it clear that no person or family could interfere in their peaceful life. Even the state cannot object to the relationship of two adults, said the court.
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