Haryana anti-conversion law: Congress says legislation ‘scary’; for BJP ‘need of the hour’

On December 15, eight months after the Bill was passed, the government notified the Rules, which state that the “burden of proving innocence that the conversion was not affected through misrepresentation, use of force, under threat, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage or for marriage shall be on the accused”.

Haryana is not the only state to have implemented legislation to prevent forcible religious conversion. Several states such as Karnataka, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand have similar laws.

Critics of such laws allege they were earlier used to prevent people from Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribe (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) from converting to minority religions but were lately being used to target members of minority communities, mostly Muslims, who marry Hindu women.

The BJP-Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) government led by Manohar Lal Khattar and the JJP’s Dushyant Chautala, the deputy chief minister, got the Bill passed in the 90-member Assembly in March despite opposition from the Congress that called the legislation a “draconian law”. Senior leader and six-term MLA Dr Raghuvir Singh was suspended from the House after he tore a copy of the Bill on the floor of the House.

Though the ruling BJP has not singled out any religion, Khattar, while reasoning that an anti-conversion law was the need of the hour, said at the time, “Law is enacted to create a deterrent for people when they start doing something wrong. Such incidents have started taking place in a few places across Haryana. When there used to be only one or two such incidents, there was no need for such a law. But now several incidents of forced religious conversion by way of coercion and allurements have come to light. To prevent such incidents, such laws are required.”

Home Minister Anil Vij also defended the legislation and said that “such provisions/ laws are necessary to prevent crimes like forcible religious conversions”. He added, “This law would definitely deter people from committing such crimes.”

However, Leader of Opposition and former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the Congress said, “There was no need to bring a new law as there is already an existing provision for punishment of forcible conversions.”

Calling the legislation “scary”, Congress leader Kiran Choudhary said that “it would deepen the communal divide and could have serious repercussions in the future”.

Several Congress MLAs such as BB Batra, Dr Raghuvir Singh Kadian, Geeta Bhukkal, Shamsher Singh Gogi, and Aftab Ahmed have called the law “unconstitutional” and alleged that it is an attempt by the government to “create a divide in society on the basis of religion”. They demanded to know the number of complaints or criminal cases that formed the basis for the government to introduce the Bill in the first place. However, Speaker Gian Chand Gupta said that “certain steps have to be taken as preventive measures”.

As per the notified rules, the accused shall be liable to pay “monthly maintenance” and “expenses of the proceedings” to the aggrieved person — mostly women in cases of forcible conversion. If a child is born during the marriage, the accused will also have to pay maintenance to the child till he is a minor.

“At the time of declaring the marriage as null and void, or at any time subsequent thereto, the Court may order the accused to “pay such gross sum or such monthly maintenance or periodical amount (for a term not exceeding the life of the accused)”, the law states.

In case of violation, the legislation also has a provision for 10-year imprisonment.

Even if the accused dies while the trial is pending, the courts shall be empowered to secure payment of a maintenance amount by making a charge on the immovable property of the deceased.

“It is a historic decision taken by our chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar. This law will curb incidents of forcible religious conversions. All such anti-social elements who were indulging in such conversions shall be dealt with sternly under this law. I thank Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Home Minister Anil Vij for this legislation,” said state BJP president Om Prakash Dhankar.