Linking the Walkar case to ‘love jihad’ a disservice to larger gender issues

Even as investigations into the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by her live-in partner Aaftab Amin Poonawala continue, there have been efforts in some quarters to link this dastardly crime to “love jihad”. To be sure, central investigative agencies have not found any proof of larger criminal design in interfaith marriages in the past, raising questions on the very sanctity of a term such as “love jihad”, which is used by the right wing to describe a conspiracy by Muslim men to cheat Hindu women into marriage, and then convert them. What an HT analysis shows is that the Walkar murder case fits in with data that show that many women pay the ultimate price for failing to come out of an abusive relationship. Here are four charts that explain this in detail.

Instead of blaming Walkar for her inability to get out of the abusive relationship, the real blame ought to be laid with the social sanction for patriarchy and perhaps the unwillingness of our criminal justice system to pursue such cases in a proactive manner.

HT reported on November 24 that Walkar filed a police complaint against Poonawala as early as 2020 but refused to pursue it after his parents prevailed upon her and the police let it be. The fact that India only brought in place an anti-domestic violence law in 2005

and is still debating whether marital rape should be criminalised is proof enough that our society at large is extremely reluctant to allow a proactive approach by the criminal justice system in preventing violence against women in relationships or marriages.