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Uttarakhand CM orders probe into govt press release promoting inter-caste, interfaith marriages

Hindustan Times, Dehradun | ByKalyan Das | Edited by Abhinav Sahay
Nov 22, 2020 04:28 PM IST

CM’s media coordinator said the scheme has been in place since the formation of Uttarakhand in 2000 as it was adopted like other schemes from Uttar Pradesh which is the parent state.

After a controversy erupted over a press release by district social welfare officer of Tehri Garhwal, promoting a government scheme for incentive for inter-caste and interfaith marriages, Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat ordered an inquiry into the matter.

Rawat ordered the state chief secretary on Saturday evening to conduct the inquiry to find out the circumstances necessitating the press release by the social welfare officer.

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Confirming the development, Rawat’s media coordinator Darshan Singh Rawat said, “The CM has taken a serious note of the incident and ordered an inquiry by the CS.”

“He has asked him to probe the conditions under which the district social welfare officer issued the press release on a government scheme when the government is strictly against any interfaith marriage with religious conversion,” said Darshan.

He informed that the scheme has been in place since the formation of Uttarakhand in 2000 as it was adopted like other schemes from Uttar Pradesh which is the parent state.

“The government will soon work on discontinuing the scheme as it cannot tolerate disturbance in peace and harmony in the state with marriages done after religious conversion,” said Rawat.

Earlier on Saturday, the Uttarakhand government had come under severe criticism on social media after a copy of the press release made rounds on it. Many Twitter users including some right-wing leaning ones had accused the Uttarakhand government of promoting interfaith marriages when other states are making laws against ‘love jihad.’

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The press release by the social welfare officer stated, “To promote communal harmony and social unity, interfaith and inter-caste marriages are very important as it will help remove differences among different communities.”

“To promote such marriages, the social welfare department gives an incentive of R50,000. The inter-caste or interfaith couples can avail this by applying for the same free of cost at the office of social welfare within one year of the marriage,” it stated.

It also mentioned conditions that in inter-caste marriage, one partner has to be from the Scheduled Caste community and in case of interfaith marriages, the marriage should have been held in a government approved place of worship like a temple, church or a mosque.

Following the controversy, the economic advisor to chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, Alok Bhatt, on Saturday said: “The press release… is concerned with one scheme in force under one such scheme of the Uttar Pradesh government since 1976 as made applicable to Uttarakhand. The actual incentive under the scheme was Rs 10,000, which the then Congress government in 2014 increased to Rs 50,000.”

Clearing the BJP government’s stand on the move, he tweeted: “No one from the government has spoken in support of promoting interfaith marriages. No-one in the BJP government in their wildest dreams will support anything that is made out here.”

The Opposition Congress however attacked the BJP led state government saying, “If the government says that it was our government which had increased the incentive amount then why didn’t they discontinue it?”

“This scheme has been in the state since its formation. BJP has had at least four CMs in the state, why none of them discontinued this? It is raking up such issues because it has done nothing for the development of the state. It can discontinue the scheme but can’t stop two individuals from different faiths or caste to marry which is allowed in the constitution,” said Dhasmana.

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