Assam will soon introduce a law providing for life imprisonment in cases of “love jihad”, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday.
“Love jihad” is a conspiracy theory espoused by Hindutva groups, alleging that Hindu women are forcibly converted to Islam through marriage.
“At the time of elections, we had spoken about love jihad,” Sarma said in Guwahati at a Bharatiya Janata Party state executive meeting. “In the coming days, we will bring a new law that will introduce life imprisonment as a penalty for love jihad cases.”
Sarma also said that the government’s permission will be made mandatory for the sale of land between Hindus and Muslims.
“Earlier, there was inter-religious land transfers,” Sarma was quoted as saying by The Indian Express. “Hindus’ lands were bought by Muslims, Muslims’ lands were bought by Hindus. The government cannot prevent such transactions but it has decided that for the land of a Hindu to be bought by a Muslim and vice-versa, there can be land sale permission only after the chief minister’s consent is taken.”
Sarma said that these decisions were aimed at “protecting the rights of indigenous people” and sought to fulfill promises made before the 2021 elections.
He added that the BJP government in the state would introduce restrictions on the sale of land to a “particular community” in Lower Assam’s Goalpara region, where the Koch Rajbongshi community resides.
“Undivided Goalpara was an integral part of Assam, of great importance to the Koch Rajbongshi community,” he said. “But people from a particular community kept snatching land from our indigenous people there and today we are in the minority in our own land.”
He added that the state government has decided to bring a law that in the erstwhile Undivided Goalpara district, no land “can be sold to people of special communities”.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat on Monday called the proposed legislation “absolutely outrageous”, saying that Sarma can only speak “such language” because of the default politics of the BJP, ANI reported.
Karat said that the chief minister was setting a new record in “unconstitutional, illegal and utterly communal measures”.
“Land jihad”, according to Hindutva groups, is a strategy by Muslims to build shrines on public land.
Karat added: “Where is there any authority given to any government, let alone the chief minister to say – unless he gives the consent, there will be no sale of land between different communities?”