COURTESY HT NOV 22

Press release on govt scheme triggers row on social media
Kalyan Das

kalyan.das@htlive.com

Dehradun : A controversy erupted after a copy of a press release, issued by the social welfare officer of Tehri Garhwal district on a government scheme to promote inter-caste and interfaith marriages for social unity, was circulated on the social media on Saturday.

The press release was issued by district social welfare officer Dipankar Ghildiyal to invite applications from inter-caste and interfaith couples for the government scheme under which such couples are awarded an incentive of ₹50,000.

It, however, soon drew criticism on the social media where many users criticised the move, saying, “The Uttarakhand government is promoting interfaith marriages.”

The announcement comes at a time when many BJP-ruled states are planning to bring legislation to end alleged “love jihad”.

“Love jihad” is a term used by Hindu right-wing activists to describe marriages between a Muslim man and a Hindu woman.

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

“To promote such marriages, the social welfare department gives an incentive of ₹50,000. 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 Scheduled Caste community and in case of interfaith marriages, the marriage should have held in a government approved place of worship like temple, church and 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.”

Clearing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s stand on the move, Bhatt 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.”

Bhatt also mentioned that in the actual scheme of the UP government, the incentive amount was ₹10,000 which was then increased by the erstwhile Congress government in 2016 to ₹50,000.

When contacted, Bhatt refused to say anything more on the matter and said, “I clarified the issue on Twitter in my personal capacity.”

Despite several attempts, state social welfare minister Yashpal Arya and minister and government spokesperson Madan Kaushik couldn’t be contacted.

A government official, on the condition of anonymity, said: “The district social welfare officer issued the press release to invite applications under the scheme but the timing was wrong. The government would soon take the required action to make some changes in the scheme which cannot be done overnight.”

Suryakant Dhasmana, Congress state vice president, said, “If the BJP accuses the then Congress government of increasing the amount in the scheme then they should answer why it didn’t discontinue it...?”

The scheme was adopted from Uttar Pradesh as in case of other schemes after the formation of Uttarakhand.

Above all, the state government can discontinue the scheme but it can’t stop any two individuals from different faith or caste from marrying as the right is granted under the Constitution,” the Congress leader said