Uttar Pradesh criminalizes ‘forced’ religious conversions by marriage

India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party approved a decree in the country’s most populous state laying out prison terms for anyone compelling others to convert their faith or luring them into these conversions through marriage, officials said in a report released by Reuters.

The move follows a campaign by hardline Hindu groups against some interfaith marriages that they describe as “love jihad,” Muslim men engaging in a conspiracy to turn Hindu women away from their religion by seducing them.

Uttar Pradesh Cabinet minister Siddharth Nath Singh said prison terms of up to five years were necessary to stop unlawful conversions and provide justice to women who have suffered from them.

Under the new law, a man and woman belonging to different religions will have to give two months’ notice to the district magistrate before they get married and they will be allowed to tie the knot if there are no objections.

Nusrat Jahan, a member of the national parliament from a regional group most active in the neighboring state of West Bengal, told NDTV television news channel the decree smacked of politics — even though regional elections are at least a year away.

“This is just another agenda before the elections. There is nothing like ‘love jihad’ that exists. People can make their own decisions,” she said.