Assam govt to crack down on marriage by deception

Guwahati, Oct 15: The BJP led government in Assam has decided to crackdown on marriages by deception. This comes in the wake of an emerging trend in which the groom lies about his religion to marry a Hindu girl, the state's finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

In Assam we are seeing the emergence of two to three new trends. Many Muslim boys create fake Facebook accounts with Hindu names and post pictures of themselves at Temples. A girl gets married to one such boy only to discover later that he is not a Hindu.

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This is not a bonafide marriage, Sarma said.

He however clarified that the government was not against marriage outside one's religion.

He said that the marriage has to take place without deception. It is our duty to protect our daughters and sisters from being tricked into an inter-faith relationship. We will fight against any such marriage which has been or had been solemnised on the basis of forgery, Sarma further pointed out.

The comments from Sarma comes a few days after he had said at a BJP Mahila Morcha meeting in Dibrugarh that the time had come to start a new fight against love jihad on Assam's soil. He added that if anyone hides his religious identity for marriage or making negative comments about Assamese women, they would face strict punishment.