Love Jihad: BJP MLA advocates child marriage of girls to stop 'love-jihad'; says 'find girls a groom before they turn 18'

Madhya Pradesh's BJP legislator, Gopal Parmar trigger-out a controversy on Saturday by extending his support on child marriage and called the legal age of marriage (prescribed under the Marriage Act) as a 'disease' and advocated child marriage to stop the most talked cases of 'love-jihad'. Parmar stated late marriages are responsible for elopement and 'love jihad' and stated child marriage used to last 'forever' unlike 'divorces that happen today.

Addressing a function in Madhya Pradesh's Agar Malwa, BJP MLA Gopal Parmar advised parents of girls, especially mothers, to fix marriages of their daughters early in order to save them from love jihad like cases.

“Earlier girls and boys used to marry before they turned 18 and 21. Marriages were fixed when they used to be of tender age, and did not go astray…or (they did not) think of anyone else. Now they meet at coaching classes and some fall prey to vices like ‘love jihad’.Since the 18-year 'disease' (legal age bar for a girl's marriage) has started, many girls have started eloping as the fever of love jihad has gripped," said Parmar.

Linking love jihad-- a term used by Hindutva organisations for marriages between Hindu women and Muslim men too late marriages, the BJP lawmaker said girls are 'emotional' and they get lured when someone offers to help them by changing name and identity. “I married as a child, and I ensured that marriages of my children — two daughters and a son — were fixed before they attained the legal age of marriage,” Parmar, 53, said. “They are all happy.”

Stating that no one had heard of divorces when child marriages were practised, Parmar said, “The groom and bride used to be unfamiliar with each other, but marriages would work because parents used to apply their mind and fix marriages between compatible children.”

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“It is the duty of our mothers to make their daughters, who are closer to them, understand this,” he added, according to the Hindustan Times. Parmar told ANI: “The government’s intention behind the 18-year bar for marriage is different, but children’s marriages were fixed earlier in the villages, then they would not take the wrong decision.” Now, if somebody does not get married on time, they get “diverted” and incidents like love jihad happen.

However, Parmar clarified that he did not advise anyone to marry their daughters or son before they turn 18 or 21 respectively, but families should fix their marriages before that age.