UP house passes Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion Bill, 2020

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh assembly on Wednesday passed the contentious Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion Bill, 2020, by a voice vote. The BJP government rejected the request of opposition members belonging to the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party that it be referred to a select committee for scrutiny. BJP has a strength of 312 MLAs in a House of out of 403.

The government claimed the Act will check ‘love jihad’. The bill replaces the ordinance promulgated by governor Anandiben Patel last November. Leader of the opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary, as well as other SP MLAs like Narendra Verma and Manoj Pandey said there was no need for such a law when provisions existed to check fraud, cheating by personation and forgery in the Indian Penal Code. They alleged BJP’s aim was to further its political goals through the law, which vioalted right to privacy granted by the Constitution. BSP’s Ram Rajbhar opposed the bill on similar grounds.