Weeks of hectic planning by women’s and human rights groups bore fruit on Monday evening when the entire Opposition agreed to oppose the Maharashtra government’s resolution on inter-faith marriages. The meeting called by these groups under the banner of Salokha Samiti at the Y B Chavan auditorium, ended with the senior most Opposition leader and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder, Sharad Pawar, committing to be part of the ‘working group’ to be set up to take this campaign forward. NCP Rajya Sabha MP Fauzia Khan will also be part of the group, said Pawar.

While Pawar sat in the audience, daughter and Lok Sabha MP, Supriya Sule, was on stage to address the packed hall along with MLAs Bhai Jagtap from the Congress, Manisha Kayande from the Shiv Sena (UBT), and Rais Shaikh from the Samajwadi Party. AIMIM MP Imtiaz Jaleel sent a message of support. The CPI(M)’s Dr Uday Narkar, the CPI’s Milind Ranade and Siddarth Mokle from the Vanchit Bhaujan Aghadi also spoke. Bharati Sharma of the Maharashtra Mahila Parishad conducted the proceedings.

The Government Resolution that was passed in December 2022, Interfaith Marriage-Family Coordination Committee (state level), empowers a government-appointed committee to monitor inter-faith marriages ostensibly to provide support to women who might be in distress in these marriages. It was passed in the wake of the May 2022 murder of Vasai resident Shraddha Walkar by her live-in partner Aftab Poonawalla in Delhi, which was projected as a case of love-jihad by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Also read: Why BJP is wary of a Congress-like situation

‘GR violates the Constitution’

Senior advocate Mihir Desai of the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), which was also involved in organising the meeting, pointed out that the GR violated Articles 15 (forbidding discrimination), 21 (right to life which includes the right to privacy), and 25 (right to freedom of religion) of the Constitution. The GR was a precursor said Desai, to a law similar to those enacted by BJP-ruled states which forbid conversion for the sake of marriage. While those laws have been stayed by some High Courts, it was important to challenge this GR politically, said Desai.

Soon after the GR was passed, Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh had declared that his party would challenge it in court. On Monday, he repeated this. “I’m from Satara, and never was my family made to feel different from others. We need to protect this culture from those out to destroy it,” said Shaikh.

Comrade Uday Narkar who hails from Kolhapur, recounted that Hindutva groups had held a morcha there recently and declared their opposition to the progressive traditions of Kolhapur and of Maharashtra. “They have made their intention clear. We cannot rest till the government withdraws this GR,” said Narkar.

The speakers scoffed at the BJP’s supposed concern for women. Trade unionist Milind Ranade pointed to the frequency with which Hindu women are killed by their families, while Jagtap recalled that the Maharashtra government had used the Nirbhaya Fund, meant for fighting crimes against women, to buy escort vehicles for its MLAs. Had the BJP government bothered to protect Kashmiri Pandit women, asked Manisha Kayande, wondering at the qualifications of those appointed on the monitoring committee.

Other issues brought up

Striking a different note, Siddharth Mokle and Supriya Sule alerted the audience to the dangers behind focusing only on the “Hindu-Muslim binary”. Mokle pointed to the repeated allegations of “land jihad’’ made by the Hindutva morchas that were being held throughout the state. “Under the garb of Hindutva, is there a builders’ lobby at work?” he asked.

Sule felt that while the GR had to be opposed, especially given Maharashtra’s pioneering measures regarding women, people must not forget that the two most crucial issues were unemployment and inflation. She also appealed to women’s groups to involve men too in this campaign.

Veteran feminist Wandana Sonalkar however, had a pertinent question, “We encourage inter-faith marriages, but shouldn’t we have a support system for inter-faith couples?’’ 

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