Assam cabinet minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday confirmed that the state government has drafted a law against 'Love Jihad' to curb deception in cases of marriage. This was stated to new channel Republic TV World.

Mr Sarma said that the bill will be enacted after the BJP-led government is re-elected to power in 2021 Assam Assembly polls.

Speaking to Republic TV, the cabinet minister stated that the Assam government had received several complaints where a boy hides his real identity and religion to lure girls into marriage. Maintaining that marriage is a voluntary engagement between two individuals, Mr Sarma made it clear that there should be no element of cheating involved. He further mentioned that the law will ensure that no person can provide a false identity to get married.

"Marriage is considered one of the holiest acts. It should happen in circumstances where there is no fraud and no cheating. The law will ensure that nobody can provide false identity, false religion and basically, you cannot hide your religious identity to get married even in social media or otherwise. We have drafted a law. We have seen the laws enacted in other states also. But as I told you, we are going into elections now. So, we don't want to push it otherwise people will say that this is an electoral agenda. But, as and when we come back, definitely we are going to enact it," he said.

Furthermore, the Uttar Pradesh cabinet has already approved the 'Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020'. Haryana and Madhya Pradesh on the other hand have already announced that they will impose the anti-Love Jihad law very soon.