Strange are the ways of New India. The conjuring of conspiracy theories, to cite one example, is deemed fit for the formulation of stringent but contentious laws. Consider the concept of love jihad, an alleged conspiracy hatched by Muslim men to woo and convert young Hindu women. Some years ago, the Union home ministry had been on record stating that the phenomenon eludes a legal definition under existing laws; tellingly, the ministry added that Central agencies had not reported any case pertaining to love jihad. That makes love jihad a figment of Hindutva’s imagination. Yet, the eagerness on the part of political dispensations led by the Bharatiya Janata Party to keep the proverbial pot of forced interfaith unions boiling remains undiminished. Uttar Pradesh had been the first state to pass a law penalising unlawful religious conversion under the watch of Yogi Adityanath who seeks to cement his image as a protector of Hindus. Now Devendra Fadnavis has chosen to follow in Mr Adityanath’s footsteps. The Maharashtra government has decided to notify a committee to frame a legislation against love jihad in a bid to check fraudulent or forced religious conversions.

There is, of course, a design in whipping up such spectres. Interfaith unions, a testament to the nation’s inclusive fabric, have been a perpetual ideological red rag for Hindutva and its minders. Mr Fadnavis finds nothing wrong with interfaith marriage but the framing — weaponisation? — of laws to introduce a punitive element against ostensibly forced conversions ends up serving as a deterrent against consensual interfaith unions. But there is another incentive to croak about love jihad that must not be ignored. Hindutva thrives on the dissemination of shrillness and division. The path up the ladder of hierarchy in the BJP is thus paved with the intent to polarise. The game to succeed Narendra Modi may well be afoot. The whispers in the corridors of power suggest that Mr Fadnavis, a favourite child of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, is keen on throwing his hat in the ring. Two of his principal competitors are Mr Adityanath and the Union home minister, Amit Shah. Both are known for their aggressive pursuit of Hindutva’s hardest lines. The competition to appear hawkish is thus stiff and Mr Fadnavis cannot allow himself to grow a soft plumage. That right-wing bogeys such as love jihad have enormous political purchase points to the BJP’s perverse success in mining intolerance. It is also a testament to the nation’s distancing from its founding, pluralistic vision.