Row in Maharashtra after government sets up panel on interfaith marriages

A new political issue erupted in Maharashtra after the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government set up a panel to look into issues related to interfaith marriages, which the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi slammed as regressive.

The government decided to form a 13-member panel — ‘Inter-caste and Inter-faith marriage-family coordination committee’ — to look into grievances filed by family members of couples in interfaith marriages.

The panel would be headed by the Women and Child Development Minister, currently Mangal Prabhat Lodha.

Read | Hindu groups take interfaith couple to task in Mangaluru

The BJP and Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde's faction) welcomed the development.

“It's a welcome move by the Maharashtra government to set up a state level committee to study data of Inter-religion and Inter-caste marriages. It is a proactive step taken by the government in the right direction,” BSS spokesperson Krishna Hegde said.

BJP spokesperson and MLA Ram Kadam said that it was an effort to ensure that 'Shraddha Walkar type incidents' do not happen again. “'Love Jihad' incidents should not happen,” he said.

However, senior NCP leader and former minister Dr Jitendra Awhad said: “What's this rubbish of a committee to check inter caste/religion marriages? Who is the government to spy on who marries whom? In liberal Maharashtra this is a retrograde, nauseating step. Which way is progressive Maharashtra heading towards. Stay away from people's private lives.”