New Delhi: Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan doubled down on the remarks made by a Catholic Bishop in the state, alleging that Muslims were involved in an unsubstantiated “narcotic and love jihad” drive, by citing statistics.
Quoting government data, Vijayan, who had a day ago decried the remarks saying the southern state is a firm terrain of secularism, called them “unfortunate.”
The Bishop had said recently that Christian girls were “falling prey to the love and narcotic jihad in Kerala,” remarking that Muslims were acting as part of a conspiracy to lure youths of non-Muslim communities with drugs and trapping women in marriages as a method of conversion.
The “love jihad” bogey has been peddled increasing and has found legal sanction in several north Indian states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party. However, the Union home ministry has said that it does not have any data on “love jihad” cases reported.
Vijayan, too, said that there was no factual basis for such propaganda and that analysis of data on the cases of religious conversion and smuggling of drugs has revealed that the minority religions of the state have no special involvement in them.
“None of this has any religious involvement, nor can it be included in the category of religion,” the chief minister said.
He said 4,941 cases were registered in the state in 2020 under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and out of the 5,422 accused, 2,700 (49.80%) were Hindus, 1,869 (34.47%) were Muslims and 853 (15.73%) were Christians.
“There is nothing unnatural in this ratio,” Vijayan said and added that drug trafficking is not based on religion.
Citing the statistics, the chief minister also rejected the charge that women from Christian and other communities are trapped into marriages and made to join to terror organisations like the Islamic State after conversion.
Also read: How the Imaginary Threat of ‘Narcotics Jihad’ Reflects a Real Threat of Widening Divisions
“None of these figures validate the propaganda that girls are converted and taken to terrorist organisations after luring them into love,” he said.
Islamic State
Referring to the incidents of those who have joined the Islamic State from Kerala until 2019, he said of the 100 Malayalees, 72 went abroad for professional purposes and from there they became attracted to IS ideologies and joined the organisation.
“All of them except Praju, the son of Damodaran from Thuruthiyad, Kozhikode, were born into the Muslim community. The other 28 were found to have left Kerala, attracted by IS ideology,” he said.
Among those 28 persons, a Hindu woman from Thiruvananthapuram married a Christian man from Palakkad and a Christian woman from Ernakulam married a Christian youth.
“They converted to Islam after their marriage and joined the IS,” the chief minister claimed.
Vijayan said Bishop Joseph Kallarangatt’s statement is not reflective of Kerala society as a whole and expressed hope that he would “respond”, sensing the stand of the public on the issue.
The chief minister also rejected opposition parties’ demand to convene an all-party meeting on this, noting that the remarks were not made by persons related to any political party.
“The issue is a wrong remark (made by the Bishop). All parties have made their stand clear on the issue,” Vijayan said, adding that on the basis of the stand taken by the parties, a response should come from those who made the remarks.
Condemning those trying to stoke up the controversy in a “very unfortunate manner”, he said the government would intervene to strengthen the secular fabric of the society.
(With PTI inputs)