Reporters Without Orders Ep 147: ‘Love jihad’ and Uttar Pradesh’s anti-conversion law

In this episode, the host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Nidhi Suresh and The Hindu’s Uttar Pradesh correspondent, Omar Rashid.

The conversation starts off with the panelists sharing the strangest news stories they heard during the week.

They then move on to discuss what the bogey of Love Jihad really means? “Basically it’s a political lie created by the right-wing to criminalise the behaviour of Muslim men when it comes to their interaction with Hindu women,” says Omar.

The trio also discuss, in detail, the recent case in Moradabad where an interfaith couple were held under Uttar Pradesh’s new anti-conversion law despite repeatedly stating that the marriage and conversion was consensual. Nidhi and Omar, who covered the story from the ground, describe their experience and highlight the lapses and contradictions in the case.

On the role of the media in propping up the narrative of ‘love jihad’, Omar says: “I feel the media really plays a big role to send a message to the larger audience that something like this exists and to define their biases, their prejudices and conservative practises into a very well formulated idea called Love Jihad.”

All this and a lot more as they talk about what made news this week, what didn’t, and what shouldn’t have.

Tune in!

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