'Be in love, start falling in love...': TMC MP Nusrat Jahan on 'love jihad'

Trinamool Congress (TMC) parliamentarian Nusrat Jahan on Monday said that love and jihad don’t go hand in hand and ‘love jihad’ is just another poll plank.

“Love is very personal. Love and jihad don’t go hand-in-hand. Just before polls, people come up with topics like this. It is a personal choice who you want to be with. Be in love and start falling in love with each other. Don’t make religion a political tool,” said MP Nusrat Jahan at a press conference in Kolkata.

Nusrat Jahan, an actor-turned-politician, got married last year to businessman Nikhil Jain, a person of another faith.

West Bengal goes to polls in 2021 for 294 seats. The BJP is trying hard to grab power from Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in a state which has largely remained outside the saffron party’s area of influence, though the party put an a surprisingly good show here in the last Lok Sabha polls.

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Three prominent states ruled by the BJP – Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka – have announced a strict law against “Love Jihad”.

In addition to this, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had recently talked about formulating a law against forcible religious conversion.

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The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is investigating two cases of inter-faith marriages from Kerala. However, the Union Home Ministry stated on February 4 this year that the term “love jihad” is not defined under the existing laws and no such case has been reported so far.