Communist Party’s Doublespeak On ‘Love Jihad’: Cadre Beats Up Muslim Man For Relationship With Christian Woman In Kerala

The cadre of Communist Party of India (Marxist), called CPIM or CPM, beat up a Muslim man in a Kerala court, after daughter of a CPM worker said that she was in a consensual relationship with him. The woman, 18, is a Christian.

As per a report by Malayalam daily Janmabhumi, the woman had eloped from her home last week. On the complaint of her father, police recovered her from her boyfriend’s hometown and brought her in front of the magistrate. 

As per law, if the woman is an adult — which she is, in this case — she can consent to going with the man without approval of her family.

The woman indeed gave a statement to the magistrate that she was in a consensual relationship with the man, had gone with her free will, and wanted to marry him. Hearing this, the CPM cadre present in the court beat up the man.

The woman, 18, is a native of Thodapuzha city in Idukki district while the man is a native of Malappuram district, about 70 percent population of which is Muslim. 

The man is employed at the state government-owned non-banking finance company Kerala State Financial Enterprises Limited (KSFE). They met on social media.

The missing person’s complaint was filed at Karimkunnam police station. The complaint accused the man of kidnapping her and trying to convert her to Islam. The police found the woman in Malappuram. For her statement of consent to be recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC, she was brought to Idukki district court.

As per the report, around 100 policemen were already deployed in the court to prevent any untoward incident. Despite this, the CPM cadre beat up the man.

The Idukki police have filed a case against 14 men including CPM district leaders for the violence. Those booked include CPM area secretaries. The couple is currently housed at a government shelter home.

The current Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, is a member of the CPM. The party’s all-India general secretary is Sitaram Yechury.

Workers of the CPM in Kerala have raised the issue of “love jihad” time and again, but are suppressed by the senior leadership. 

Love Jihad is a term given by Christian groups in Kerala more than a decade ago for the pattern of men from the Muslim community trapping Christian women in relationships for their religious conversion through marriage. 

Over the years, the term has come to be used by Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and tribal groups too, while protesting against Islamic conversion of their women.

In 2020, the CPM publicly censured a former MLA and district secretariat member, George M Thomas, for his calling a case of conversion-nikah of daughter of a Christian CPM worker, as “love jihad”.

In September 2021, the party circulated an in-house note to its cadre asking them to watch out for “educated young women in the professional colleges to the path of communalism and terrorism.” 

The note followed cases where Hindu and Christian women were found to have married Muslim men after their religious conversion to Islam and fled to ISIS-controlled zones to live an “Islamic way of life”.

Senior CPM leaders often attack leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party or cadre of the Sangh for raising the issue of ‘love jihad’, saying it’s non-existent.