“Will End ‘Love Jihad’ In K’taka”: CM Yediyurappa

Bengaluru: “Love Jihad” is a social evil and a law is necessary to tackle it, the Karnataka government said today, revealing that it is consulting experts on the subject. Karnataka is the latest to consider such a law after other BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.

Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa announced that his government would “take stern measures towards ending” what he called young girls being lured with money or love.

“We have seen many reports in newspapers and in the electronic media about conversions due to love jihad. I discussed this with officials before coming here. I don’t know about other states – but in Karnataka we are going to end this. The luring of young girls with the use of money or love is something we are taking seriously. We will take stern measures towards ending this,” Mr Yediyurappa said.

Earlier, his home minister Basavaraj Bommai had called it a “social evil” that must be tackled using law.

“This love jihad has been there for some time and it is a social evil. A law is necessary – that has been the loud thinking of various sections of society in all states,” Mr Bommai said.

“We are looking at what steps we are going to take and we are consulting our law experts also. Based on those decisions, we would also like to have some protection …this inducement of youngsters into love jihad and then conversion,” said the home minister.

“Love jihad” is a pejorative used by right-wing groups to target relationships between Muslim men and Hindu women, which, they say, is a ruse to forcibly convert the women.

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