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Madhya Pradesh to enforce ‘love jihad’ ordinance
The proposed law is aimed at regulating interfaith marriages in the state that provides for up to 10 years in prison for “forcing women, minors, and people from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to undergo religious conversion.” .
A three-day winter session of the Madhya Pradesh legislative assembly, which was scheduled to start on Monday, has been postponed after 10 MLAs and 61 employees of the assembly secretariat tested positive for Covid 19, prompting the state government to decide that the MP Freedom of Religion Act will now be enforced through an ordinance.
The decision was taken at an all-party meeting held on Sunday evening. Home minister Narottam Mishra said later that the proposed law will now be enforced through an ordinance. The proposed law is aimed at regulating interfaith marriages in the state that provides for up to 10 years in prison for “forcing women, minors, and people from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to undergo religious conversion.” .
Opposition leaders blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government for postponing the session to avoid a discussion over farm issues and inflation.
Pro-tem speaker and BJP legislator Rameshwar Sharma said, “Before the session, the staff members and MLAs had been asked to undergo Covid 19 test. Till Sunday evening, as many as 61 employees of the assembly secretariat and 10 MLAs had tested Covid-19 positive and it would be a risky affair to conduct the session.”
“The decision was taken for the safety of legislators and with a consensus of representatives of all the political parties. Now, the budget session will be organized,” he added.
After the meeting, MP Congress Committee president and former chief minister Kamal Nath said: “The session has been postponed and we have requested to form committees of different departments to reply to the questions of the MLAs submitted for the winter session.”
Former minister and Congress MLA PC Sharma said: “The session could have been organized virtually for Covid 19 infected MLAs but the BJP-led state government proposed the postponement to avoid discussion over important issues related to farmers, inflation and crime against women.”
“Congress had declared to gherao the assembly before the session to support the protest of farmers against the farm bills and for that MLAs had been asked to reach the assembly in tractors. But the state government wanted to suppress the voice of opposition so they took then excuse of Covid 19,” he added.
BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said: “Now to blame the government has become a habit of Congress leaders. If they want to protest, they are free to do. They wanted to do the drama of protest for media attention only.”
