The term ‘Love Jihad’ has been doing the rounds this year.
It has gained such momentum, that it has been made a part of the poll promises of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of Assam for the 2021 elections. Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma has made an announcement on similar grounds that a law to do away with Love Jihad crimes is to be enacted. The said law would ensure disclosing the partner’s identity/details pre-marriage especially with respect to income, religion etc.
We live in a globalized world wherein people have to toil hard to earn their bread. Then why is there a hike in such crimes? The root cause of this issue is connected to imposters who fake their identity and project themselves to be someone else. For example, a person may project himself to be financially sound while dating someone, or a person can similarly conceal one’s religious identity (Love Jihad cases) and approach the other partner. This could be due to various reasons such as for love or with a motive of religious conversion.
The victims of such crimes such as one Mausumi Das who was a student of Rabindra Sadan Girls’ College, Karimganj had fallen into a similar trap of ‘Love Jihad’ crime. She was literally brainwashed with repeated phone calls and finally, she gave in to the demand of the boy (of Bangladeshi origin). Ultimately, she was taken to Bangladesh and forcefully converted. The authorities stated that such crimes are beyond conversion and the girls who mostly hail from humble origins are forced to be a part of various inhuman treatments such as drug trafficking and human trafficking. Incidents of similar nature were reported during the lockdown phase as well. Social media platforms such as Facebook were used as a honey trap by such offenders.
This form of impersonation was also projected in popular Bollywood movies such as ‘Bala’ where the boy who was in love with the girl had concealed his baldness and eventually the girl had come to know about this post-marriage which became a ground for divorce. Hence, these kinds of crimes are not new; people do fake their identities.
The hate crime against victims such as Nikita Tomar has added fuel to this entire burning issue. However, the Supreme Court, in Hadiya’s case of Kerala and the recent judgment by Allahabad High Court of annulling the element of ‘Love Jihad’ aspect and upholding the element of real love, has tried to strike a balance between genuine love ties which is bereft of such illegality.
Uttar Pradesh governor (Anandiben Patel) has recently promulgated the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance 2020, proposing a maximum punishment of 10 years and also a fine for Love Jihad offences. Even Madhya Pradesh Home Minister has indicated about enacting similar laws.
Under the current legal system there are certain provisions to deal with such kinds of impersonation, concealment, etc either physically or through the virtual medium and is dealt by the provisions under the IT (Information Technology) Act 2000. But what we see is that the current laws have not been able to clamp down offences of such nature.
However, even if this act or law sees the light of the day, it is going to be a mammoth task for the authorities to decipher whether the said crime has taken place at all. The problem with such crimes is that the victims mostly suffer from a psychological disease called ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ wherein the victim develops sympathy for the accused/offender as with the help of constant contact or through brainwashing and a victim starts to empathize with the offenders. This is mostly seen with hostages or kidnapped victims.
As Kathryn Westcott opines, the term can be traced to the Patty Hearst kidnapping by revolutionary militants. In this very case, systematic brainwashing ultimately took shape in developing sympathy with her captors and the same could be observed.
Therefore it is going to be very difficult for the authorities to remove the ‘grain from the chaff’ - in short, to decipher whether it is a case of ‘Love Jihad’ or whether it is a case of genuine love which got converted into a marriage.
Let us take the example of the aforementioned Hadiya’s case from Kerala which took the whole country by storm as the Supreme Court had agreed that the marriage between Hadiya and her Husband Shafin was out of the bond of love and therefore had cancelled the order of Kerala High Court of annulling their marriage.
Now the problem is that once the girl turns into a major (above 18), it is her free choice to tie the knot with a boy of her choice without any bar. And ultimately, the testimony of the alleged victim is of paramount importance.
Now if the alleged victim says ‘No Love Jihad/Yes to free consent’ the case turns into an open and shut one and there is nothing that the authorities can do.
Just like in Hadiya’s case, NIA (National Investigation Agency) was deployed for investigation purpose, a able team should be comprised by the authorities to investigate or report such speculative cases. This would be far better as it would be unbiased and ultimately a report can be formed and placed before the committee.
However, rescue teams should also be formed in order to protect the victims from falling prey. This new law is welcome but it should be properly documented so as to avoid confusion and also to avoid the victimization of innocent couples. But at the end of the day, there shall always be two schools of thought regarding this law, the one who wants to end such crimes and the other who although are well acquainted with the crime but would oppose the law on secular/liberal grounds.
The authorities will have to be very cautious while enacting such a law as it cannot be denied that Love Jihad crimes are a reality that has destroyed the lives of many innocent girls.
But again the authorities have to keep such exceptions safeguards in the said act which would ensure that nobody is made a scapegoat and this particular law should be formulated with due caution and different jurist who belong to different schools of thought should be roped in to review the same.
(The author is currently practicing as an Advocate in Gauhati High Court. The views expressed in the article are his own.)
