Bengaluru: Congress leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday, slammed the BJP-led Karnataka Government for its proposal to bring in a law to criminalise “love jihad”.
Taking to Twitter, the Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly said that the government’s move was to “mislead” the state’s people, pointing out there is no legal definition for the term “love jihad”.
“This is nothing but @BJP4India’s another frivolous attempt to divert public attention from their miserable administrative & policy failures,” he said in a series of tweets on Friday.
Accusing the BJP of wanting to “ignite communal flare for their political gains”, the former CM pointed out that “‘Love Jihad’ is not defined in any legal document”. “This fact is accepted in the Parliament by @BJP4India’s own Minister of State for Home affairs. Then based on what will @BSYBJP enact a law?” he questioned.
Siddaramaiah then accused the BJP of trying to “mislead people with their wrong interpretation of recent Allahabad High Court judgement”. “The court only says that Conversion for the sake of inter-religious marriage is wrong, but it ‘does not’ say that inter-religious marriage itself is wrong,” he added.
He then lashed out at the BJP-ruled state government and CM B S Yediyurappa, accusing them of “taking inspiration from CM of Uttar Pradesh” in this regard.
Pointing out that Karnataka has always been “known for its liberal & progressive ideas”, Siddaramaiah said that it is “unfortunate that @CMofKarnataka & ministers are taking inspiration from CM of Uttar Pradesh” as Uttar Pradesh “is known as ‘Goonda Rajya'” and can “never be an inspiration or a model State”.
It is unfortunate that @CMofKarnataka & ministers are taking inspiration from CM of Uttar Pradesh @CMOfficeUP.
Karnataka is always known for its liberal & progressive ideas. Uttar Pradesh, which is known as ‘Goonda Rajya’, can never be an inspiration or a model State.
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— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) November 6, 2020
it can be recalled that during the BJP’s executive committee meeting in Mangaluru on Thursday, the issue of criminalising religious conversions for marriage was brought up, after which CM BSY had stated that a law in this regard would be introduced. Several BJP leaders also brought up the issue independently in the run up to the meeting.
