Gandhinagar: Congress MLA from Jamalpur – Khadia constituency of Ahmedabad, Imran Khedawala today torn up a draft bill in the State assembly during the discussion on the Religious Freedom Amendment Bill. Ruling BJP MLAs objected this act of tearing a draft bill and requested the assembly Speaker to take action against Khedawala. Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said, Khedawala torn the draft bill for publicity in media. Leader of opposition Paresh Dhanani argued that this was just a draft bill and therefore piece of paper. The bill had yet not passed, he further argued and said MLAs have right to express their feelings. Dhanani claimed that when BJP was in opposition, its MLAs had also acted in similar manner. The amendment proposed in existing Religious Freedom Act (2003) is pertaining to ‘Love Jihad’ menace. Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja while moving the bill spoke for over an hour and in his aggressive speech said, the daughters can’t be allowed to fall in the hands of Jihadis. Jadeja quoted Church report from Kerala claiming that girls, victim of ‘Love Jihad’ are used for terror activities too. Jadeja also gave examples of some neighbouring countries also. Congress MLA from Shahpur area of Ahmedabad, Gyasuddin Sheikh also opposed the bill and claimed that there were sufficient provisions in Indian Penal Code (IPC) and year 2003 act on Religious Freedom to deal with marriage by fraud intended at religious conversion. Sheikh said he had a list of 67 Muslim girls who had wedded to Hindu boys and converted to Hindu faith. Sheikh questioned why the bill had no mention of the term ‘Love Jihad’. He alleged that the government brings in such issues every six months to conceal its failures. DeshGujarat