Mumbai: A writ petition has filed before the Bombay High Court seeking directions to remove Ms. Rekha Sharma from the post of Chairperson of National Commission for Women.
The petition if field by RTI activist Saket Gokhale agitated by a recent tweet of Ms. Sharma, whereby she claims to have met with the Governor of Maharashtra to discuss issues related to women safety and rise in "love jihad" cases.
The petitioner has objected to the last part of the tweet that mentions "love jihad". The petitioner pointed out that the office-bearer has engaged in a "blatantly communal and divisive discourse" which casts aspersions on her ability to act in a non-partisan secular manner.
I've filed a writ petition with the Hon'ble Bombay HC praying for directions to @MinistryWCD to sack Rekha Sharma as Chairperson, NCW for her communal invocation of "love jihad" & for her misogynist politically-biased tweets.
— Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) October 28, 2020
In these circumstances, she's unfit to head the NCW.
"The invocation of "rising cases of love jihad" by the Chairperson of NCW when no such cases even exist points to a communal dog whistle policy which is intended to target the Muslim community, vilify inter-faith couples, and create discord in society," he submitted.
The petition pointed out that no such cases have been reported by any central agencies of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
"This term is usually used in an informal context to refer to a baseless conspiracy theory that Muslim men are waging "jihad" (holy war) against Hindus by making Hindu girls fall in love with them with the sole intention of converting them to Islam," the petition said.