Let Hadiya be free

When a father says “I cannot have a terrorist in the family” about his daughter, there is something disturbing. It rings the alarm bells and brings to sharp relief why his adult daughter may have earlier exercised her right to change her religion and marry the man of her choice against the family’s wishes. In this context, the charge against her, being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), of having been indoctrinated to convert by some terrorist agency, begets a multi-faceted scrutiny: Perhaps, she took the flight to freedom as it is at home that she feels stifled in? Rather than being taught good values that all religions preach and expect her to naturally follow the faith of her birth as most do, she was fanatically terrorised to adhere to it? How did the simple act of a lawful inter-religious marriage take the shape of an ugly love jihad, with the father taking an antagonistic approach towards his 26-year-old daughter? It defies a normal, respectful, trustworthy and loving parent-child relationship. 

Perhaps, this was one of the factors assailing the judges hearing the Hadiya love jihad case when Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra observed, “We (the Bench) as judges must have handled 200 to 300 habeas corpus cases. But it’s not a simple case… it’s the most complex case I have seen.” After a brief interaction with Hadiya, nee Akhila, the CJI calling the case of a lawful inter-religious marriage of two adults as the “most complex” speaks volumes of the complicated layers being negotiated in the love jihad angle and the family. When the Bench asked her questions about education, hobbies, friends and career, the girl pleaded: “I want to meet my husband. I want to complete my studies and want to live my life according to my faith and as a good citizen.” But the court granted the adult woman her first wish only, sending her to her college. 

As issues raised by her husband, father, the NIA and Kerala Government await hearing in January, it will be worth for everyone in society to remember that the home is the first nursery of broad-minded, healthy human emotions and relationships. It would not do to reduce it to a place of parental coercion. And, certainly not a plaything of religious bigotry.