Kathmandu. Indian police, a few days back, arrested a Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh (UP), accusing him of forcefully trying to make a Hindu woman convert her religion, an act of ”love jihad’. The woman’s father had filed a complaint a year ago adding that the man had forced her daughter to change her religion, which the daughter denied. The case was closed then and the girl married some other man. The  man, arrested a year later again, now has been sent for a 14-day judicial custody.

He is the first to be arrested under the new anti-conversion law enforced by the UP government and similar laws are in the offing in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka and Assam. The incident  has sparked outrage in the public and among various human rights activists.

Love jihad’ is not a term officially recognized by Indian law but is most often used by radical Hindu groups that take inter-faith marriages as an attack on Hinduism. The Uttar Pradesh government has passed a law that makes religious conversion an offence, with imprisonments for up to ten years if one marries through misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or other allegedly fraudulent means. The law named as ‘Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance’ was cleared by the Uttar Pradesh cabinet last week.

Critics have disregarded the law and called it regressive and Islamophobic. Four other states having BJP major governments is said to have forming their own ‘love-jihad’ laws. Opposition parties have been accusing

Modi and his government of running anti-Muslim politics. Ashok Gehlot, a senior leader at opposition party of the Indian Congress stated, “Love jihad is a term manufactured by BJP to divide the nation and disturb communal harmony. Marriage is a matter of personal liberty, bringing a law to curb it is completely unconstitutional and it will not stand in any court of law. Jihad has no place in love.” He also added, Modi’s ruling party was “creating an environment in the nation where consenting adults would be at the mercy of state power. Marriage is a personal decision and they are putting curbs on it, which is like snatching away personal liberty.”

Modi’s BJP government has been in major criticism for promoting Hinduism and its workers being right winged radical Hindus. The issue of love jihad has been widespread in India this year; a jewelry brand in India had to bring down its advertisement after being accused of promoting love jihad. Similarly, a show in Netflix named ‘A Suitable Boy’ was also widely criticized for promoting the same issue, where action was taken against the makers for hurting ‘religious sentiments’.

The issue of ‘love jihad’ has been taking new heights in India with laws being implemented, giving a negative message to the society. The new law gives more force to the anti-Modi argument that religious polarization has increased since Prime Minister Narendra Modi first rose to power in 2014.