Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan cites hard facts to debunk claims of love/narcotic jihad

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday termed the allegations of "love jihad" and "narcotic jihad" in the state as baseless by citing figures. He also ruled out convening an all-party meeting as demanded by the opposition on the controversial "narcotic jihad" remarks made by Pala bishop Mar Joseph Kallarangatt.
“The terms love and narcotics should not be attributed to any particular religion.The hopes of some forces to spoil unity and peace in the state will remain unfulfilled,” Vijayan told reporters.
He said if the details of religious conversion and narcotic cases are analysed, it can be understood that religious minorities have no specific role in them. Countering the Pala bishop's concerns, he said there was no complaint or evidence for forced conversion from Christianity to Islam.

Citing the case of Akhila aka Hadiya who converted to Islam after marrying a Muslim youth, Vijayan said the high court and the Supreme Court had examined the matter and found that the allegations of forced conversion are baseless.
No evidence of forcibly making someone addicted to drugs: CM
On the campaign that girls from minority communities -- including Christians -- were being converted and lured to organisations like the IS, Pinarayi Vijayan said an analysis throws up another picture. Of 100 persons who joined the IS from the state in 2019, 72 had gone abroad on work-related matters and it was from there that they were attracted to ideas of the IS.
Of these 72, except one from Kozhikode, the remaining were believers of Islam. Of the remaining 28, only five persons had converted from other religions, he said. “These figures do not support the claim that girls are being converted from other religions to take them to terrorist organisations,” he said.
Vijayan said the special branch of police had undertaken several measures to counter youths getting attracted to extremist ideas. He referred to the counter-radicalisation and de-radicalisation programme initiated by the state special branch, wherein religious leaders are brought in to counter such tendencies and bring youths back to the mainstream. He said the programme, which was going on well, had to be stopped because of the Covid outbreak and it would be resumed once the Covid threat subsides.
On the narcotics menace, he said 4,941 narcotic cases were registered in the state in 2020, which involved 5,422 accused. Of these, 2,700 persons (49.8%) are from Hindu religion, 1,869 (34.47%) from Islam and 853 (15.73%) Christians. “There is no unnatural ratio anywhere in these numbers. The drug trade is not on the basis of religion,” he said.
Vijayan also said there was no evidence or complaints about forcibly making someone addicted to drugs. Stating that wrong tendencies will be dealt with strongly, he urged all political parties to make proper intervention after analysing the situation correctly.
He said there was no point in convening an all-party meeting as there would not be another opinion on the matter from any party. Instead, every organisation should use their own platform to counter such hate campaigns and wrongful tendencies.