DNA Edit | In NIA Crosshairs: Love jihad and the terror trail

‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds/ Admit impediments’ said Shakespeare in his Sonnet 116. Where Shakespeare dithered, it is now up to the National Investigation Agency to venture bravely, and probe if a larger trend of ‘love jihad could indeed be playing out in Kerala. The agency has been tasked with this job by the Supreme Court in the course of its hearing an appeal filed by the Muslim husband, Shafin Jahan, who recently approached the court against an order of the Kerala High Court declaring his marriage with a Hindu girl, Akhila (who chose to adopt the name Hadiya) as void.

Thankfully, the SC has asked the NIA to probe the increasing number of such cases cropping up these days. The modus operandi behind this phenomenon is rather simple, as NIA argued in the court. Gullible girls are first converted, then forced to leave their family members and lastly, married off. NIA told the court that this pattern is seen in two other cases as well, and that they can be linked to a radical organisation called SIMI, which is now banned in India.

Now, even before one could start dipping their toes in the facts of this particular case, the intellectual brigade has started making all the right noises: Judicial overreach, they shout from rooftops. Bigotry against religious minorities is another warcry. Some have even dared question the ‘fairness and impartiality of the courts’, however, none of them have taken the pains to inform the citizenry about the facts of the case. Many who have written about it have conveniently gone about cherry-picking facts to suit their ideological bent. One would do well to read the judgment of the Kerala HC. Jahan had admitted before the Kerala HC that he is a member of the Social Democratic Party of India.

Scores in Kerala think of the SDPI as a radical organisation. Their fears are not misplaced as SDPI is the very organisation whose member Mansy Buraqui was arrested by the NIA in October last year for allegedly harbouring links with the terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS). Not just this, Jahan is also an accused in a criminal case. Even the HC observed that Jahan is a person “who has radical inclinations as evident from his Facebook posts”. When faced with such harrowing facts, who amongst us can fault a father for approaching a court seeking to set aside the marriage of his daughter, which the Kerala HC did this May. Undeterred as he is, Jahan has approached the Supreme Court. Our hopes now rest with the apex court to address the deeper conspiracy afoot.