Explained: What Haryana's Anti Conversion Bill Says. Does It Target The Alleged 'Love Jihad'

The Haryana Cabinet has passed the draft Haryana Prevention of Unlawful Conversion of Religious Bill, 2022, which makes it illegal to convert religiously through misrepresentation, force, undue influence, compulsion, allurement, or any other fraudulent means, or by marriage or for marriage.

Following in the footsteps of several other BJP-ruled states, including Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh, Haryana's BJP administration has prepared to enact religious conversion legislation.

PTI

The Haryana Prevention of Unlawful Conversion of Religious Bill, 2022, will be introduced in the budget session of the Assembly next month. Given the BJP-JJP coalition's overwhelming majority in the 90-member House, it is certain to pass.

What is the government's rationale behind introducing this Bill?

Many incidences of purported "love jihad" have been reported in Haryana in recent months, according to the government and officials, particularly in the state's southern regions.

The BJP and its allies coined the term "love jihad" to describe Muslim men's purported attempts to persuade Hindu women to convert their faith, often through allurement, marriage promises, or pressure.

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Although the government has informed Parliament that the word 'love jihad' is not defined under the existing laws," and that state anti-conversion laws do not use the term. However, it continues to be openly used in political debates and speeches.

According to the proposed bill's declaration of goals and reasoning, ¡°The individual right to freedom of conscience and religion cannot be extended to construe a collective right to proselytise; for the right to religious freedom belongs equally to the person converting and the individual sought to be converted. Still, there have been umpteen cases of religious conversions, both mass and individual.

¡°Obviously, such incidents have been hotly debated, more so in a multi-religious society, such as ours. The presence of pseudo-social organisations with a hidden agenda to convert the vulnerable sections of other religions. There have been instances when gullible people have been converted by offering allurement(s) or under undue influence. Some have been forced to convert to other religions,¡± the draft Bill reads.

AFP

In August of last year, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced that a law was in the works, stating that a deterrent was needed in light of the rising number of forced religious conversions.

¡°A law is enacted to create a deterrent for people when they start doing something wrong. Such incidents [of ¡®love jihad¡¯] have started taking place in a few places of Haryana. Till the time these were not happening, or when there were only one or two such incidents, there was no need for such a law,¡± Chief Minister Khattar had said.

¡°But now several incidents of forced religious conversion by way of coercion and allurements have come to light. To prevent such incidents from happening, such laws are required. By way of example, I can say this is the reason we passed the anti-copying Bill. Laws are required to prevent any of these incidents from increasing in number.¡±

To deter any unlawful conversion, the draft Bill proposes ¡°greater punishment for such conversion in respect of the Minor, Women, Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes¡±.

How far has the proposed legislation progressed?

The Haryana Cabinet, which is chaired by Chief Minister Khattar, has adopted a draft of the proposed Bill as a first step. When the Vidhan Sabha meets in the Budget Session, which begins on March 2, the Bill will be introduced.

AFP

The BJP-JJP combination has 50 members in the 90-member House, therefore the Bill is likely to pass easily. The Bill will be notified in the Gazette and will become law once it has been passed and received the Governor's assent.

How will the proposed law determine the legality of the conversion?

The burden of proof, according to the draft Bill, will be on the accused to prove that a conversion was not carried out through misrepresentation, use of force, threats, undue influence, coercion, allurement, or any other fraudulent means, or by marriage, or for the purpose of carrying out conversion, or by any other fraudulent means, or by marriage, or for the purpose of carrying out conversion.

Every person who converts from one faith to another must make a certification to the appropriate authority that the conversion was not accomplished through any of the above-mentioned illegal techniques. All such cases will be investigated by the relevant authority.

Any marriage that is proved to have been solemnised by concealment of religion shall be declared null and void, according to the proposed Bill.

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