Palpable threat from love jihad

However much we might want to wish it away, the cruel vivisection of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan was carried out on the basis of religious demography. India was meant to be a Hindu majority State and Pakistan a Muslim majority one. Considering the communal anarchy that preceded our Independence and Partition, it was all the more important for Indian governments to be vigilant against concerted and conspiratorial efforts to alter the nation’s demography. 

Instead, the Congress governments of the country resorted to a dangerous policy of religious appeasement. The Hindu population of the country came down from 84.1 per cent in 1951 to 79.8 per cent in 2011. The Muslim population, on the other hand, went up from 9.8 per cent to 14.2 per cent during the same period. This obviously does not reveal the real data as it does not take into account the illegal Bangladeshis, Rohingya Muslims or the PoK residents using India as home.

What is even more disturbing is that India’s enemies had realised that the best way to break the country apart was by fomenting trouble in those states where the religious demography could be exploited against the Hindu population. And hence, Kashmir was followed by Punjab. Now, it’s the turn of Bengal and Kerala.

It is against this backdrop that love jihad in Kerala carries serious national ramifications. It is a conspiracy to manipulate the state’s religious demography. Moreover, the recent ISIS link in one of the cases throws a direct threat to India’s security.

I first chanced upon love jihad around 2010 when I was writing one of my political thrillers, The Edge Of Desire. It is noteworthy that way back in December 2009, the Kerala High Court had taken serious note of this malaise. In his ruling, Justice Sankaran had held that there were indications of ‘forceful religious conversions’ and that from some of the police reports, it was clear there was a ‘concerted’ effort to convert girls of a particular religion to another with the ‘blessings of some outfits’. The ruling added, “This should be of concern to people at large, and the government was bound to protect the fundamental rights of citizens.” The court advised the legislature to consider enactment of a law to prohibit compulsive conversion of religious faiths. Quoting statistics, the court had said that during the past four years, 3,000-4,000 religious conversions had taken place after love affairs.

When I spoke to people on the ground, I was appalled by a couple of horror stories of women having been wooed, impregnated and side-stepped for similar other women. The hunters were supposedly funded and there were lucrative incentives, based on results.

Eight years later, in 2017, the NIA investigation into love jihad only corroborates an ugly, open secret, which the world always knew but which had mischievously been brushed under the carpet by the UPA government. What makes the issue far graver now, is the probable involvement of ISIS into this machination. Referring to the particular case involving the marriage of a Muslim man Shafin Jahan, 27, to a Hindu woman, Hadiya, 24, a union later annulled by the Kerala High Court, which termed it a case of “love jihad”, the Supreme has specifically directed the NIA to probe  involvement of the ISIS angle.

The NIA findings are scary. The investigative agency has officially verified a large number of unnatural conversions of Hindu girls in the last one year. Moreover, many of these girls seemed to have a common mentor, a lady called Sainaba, who would operate disguising herself as a psychologist. What is equally appalling is the involvement of PFI, the Islamic fundamentalist organisation, believed to be a reincarnation of the banned SIMI and with a dubious record at fomenting religious hatred in Kerala. It is thus believed that extensive and notorious research went into hunting vulnerable Hindu girls for conversion, based upon their looks, family background and educational qualifications.

NIA’s findings are still being considered the tip of the iceberg. Many a times, it’s the political parties which are best aware of what is happening on the ground. And, it is in this context that former Kerala CM VS Achuthanandan’s statement, made way back in 2010, claiming that PFI had set a target of converting Kerala into a Muslim majority state in 20 years, becomes all the more significant. Today, most senior police officials in Kerala would acknowledge this vicious pattern. The free flow of hawala money from Gulf countries had made the operation murkier.

Nevertheless, it is better late than never to acknowledge and arrest this scourge. In fact, apart from the NDA government’s resolve, what has made a crucial difference is the audacious approach of mainstream Indian media, which is no longer caught up in maintaining the facade of pseudo secular political correctness.

The NDA government’s timely intervention is expected to curb this scourge. Funded or unnatural conversions with an intent to alter the religious demography of the country need to be brought under the ambit of the National Security Act. We can’t afford to provide any breeding ground to the likes of Zakir Naik and PFI.

The writer is a well-known author and spokesperson for Mumbai BJP. Views expressed are personal.