Jammu: At a time when the Narendra Modi-led NDA authorities is taking steps in direction of restoring the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir, the alleged compelled religious conversion of two Sikh women has sparked widespread protests and raised considerations in regards to the safety of minorities within the newly-created UT.
The situation has now snowballed into a significant political controversy and seems to have divided the political class, with some demanding a stringent law towards compelled religious conversion like in UP and different BJP-ruled states, whereas others sustaining a stoic silence fearing lack of their vote financial institution.
The investigation being carried out by the police in a number of states has revealed that the Hindu women or girls have develop into comfortable targets in ‘Jihad’ for religious conversion and the individuals behind this racket principally goal these belonging to poor households, unemployed youth, or individuals with a bodily incapacity.
The newest incident got here to gentle after protests broke out in Kashmir over the weekend after the studies in regards to the alleged compelled religious conversion of two Sikh women surfaced. It was reported that the Sikh women had been allegedly kidnapped, forcibly transformed and married off with out the consent of their households.
One of the ladies, an 18-year-old allegedly mentally unstable, was compelled to carry out ‘nikaah’ with a married man aged 62. The Sik leaders claimed that their marriage was validated by an area court docket, with out the consent of the woman’s dad and mom. The second woman allegedly went lacking after attending an occasion with a pal.
The current incident has uncovered a sample of ethnic cleaning of minorities in J&Ok many years after the compelled migration of Kashmiri Pandits. The incident additionally exposes the hidden agenda of Pakistan-backed anti-India components to power conversion to Islam from Kerala to Kashmir.
The situation has sparked pressure for the reason that Muslim management in J&Ok is on the defensive mode and the mainstream non-BJP events like Samajwadi Party, BSP, Congress and AAP have given a lukewarm or delayed response to the compelled conversion of two Sikh women in J&Ok.
The Sikh group, together with the Akal Takht and Shiromani Akali Dal, has taken the matter very severely and demanded security measures within the Kashmir Valley for the safety of minorities. The SAD – Punjab’s former ruling get together – has known as for the imposition of anti-conversion legal guidelines by the Centre in J&Ok.
SAD chief Manjinder Sirsa, who has been main the protests, demanded that the ladies be returned to their households. He mentioned {that a} high-level Sikh delegation will meet to debate minority considerations in Jammu and Kashmir. As protest over the problem intensified, Lieutenant Governor of J&Ok Manoj Sinha additionally took cognisance of the matter of ladies’ security and assured {that a} stringent law towards compelled religious conversion might be launched quickly.
The influential Akal Takht has additionally come ahead with the demand for an anti-conversion law in Jammu and Kashmir, in keeping with the same laws in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Some Kashmiri Pandit organisations additionally demanded extreme punishment for the culprits and the return of the “abducted” Sikh girls to their households.
However, this situation has a distinct political connotation too. During the 2020 protests towards the brand new citizenship law, a number of Sikh our bodies had supported the protesting Muslim group, particularly girls who staged a month-long sit at Shaheen Bagh towards the Centre.
At that point a political narrative suggesting that the members of two religious minority communities in India – Muslims and the Sikhs – ought to stick collectively towards a fascist BJP regime on the Centre was strongly constructed.
But all that now stands uncovered as hole and the Sikh-Muslim bonhomie construct over the anti-CAA protest has vanished now. After staying mum initially, the PAGD leaders in J&Ok have now realised that the incident will create a wedge between the Sikhs and Muslims and trigger irreparable hurt to Jammu and Kashmir.
The native J&Ok leaders have mentioned that the 2 communities (Muslims and Sikhs) have supported one another by thick and skinny, having withstood numerous makes an attempt to wreck age-old relationships, and that vthey ought to stand collectively this tie too.
However, this incident additionally factors to a bigger sinister plot to terrorise the native Hindus and Sikhs in J&Ok and power them to embrace Islam by the Pakistan-funded terror teams like Hizbul Mujahideen and LeT.
The National Investigating Agency (NIA) has lately revealed how Hizbul is creating terror to power Hindus exodus from Kashmir. A charge-sheet filed by NIA outlined Hizbul’s plan to revive terrorism in Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban and different districts of Kashmir by finishing up focused killings of Hindus within the space.
Among the mainstream political gamers, BJP is the one political get together that has strongly opposed compelled conversions on religious strains. Several BJP-ruled states have handed highly effective laws towards forceful conversions and marriages and making them cognizable and non-bailable offences.
These legal guidelines intend to counter alleged makes an attempt to transform Hindu girls to Islam within the guise of marriage, which right-wing Hindu activists check with as ‘love jihad’. However, such legal guidelines usually are not new in India. These have been in existence in a number of states, the primary such being enacted in 1967 in Odisha with the purpose of stopping conversions of tribal individuals by Christian missionaries.
In the backdrop of love jihad circumstances, a doc ready by the BJP had recognized ‘forced’ religious conversion and NGOs that obtain international funds as inner threats the nation faces. The BJP doc categorises religious conversion as a “serious domestic threat” and a “conspiracy” by Christian and ‘Jihadi’ actions to disturb the demographic construction of the nation with the assistance from funds and power.
While the Opposition events have all the time blamed BJP “communal plank”, it’s heart-warming to see SAD and Sikh our bodies popping out within the open to oppose the incidents of compelled religious conversions.
For the restoration of J&Ok’s statehood, it is vital that no get together encourages such coercive actions and assist laws that offers with religious conversion “through allurement, force or by misrepresentation or by any other fraudulent means”.
