A Kerala court has allowed an interfaith couple to marry, acknowledging they are adults, after the girl’s family lodged a kidnapping complaint and a CPM leader alleged “love jihad”, deeply embarrassing his party.

Groom-to-be M.S. Shejin, a Muslim, is himself a member of CPM youth wing DYFI while Joisna Joseph is a Christian. Her family had, along with other members of the local Christian community at Kodenchery in Kozhikode district, gone to the police after the couple eloped on April 11.

A kidnapping FIR was registered and the couple were summoned to a court in Thamarassery, Kozhikode. Shejin and Joisna told the court and the police they were in love and wanted to live their lives without hindrance.

The court gave the nod for their marriage on Tuesday. The couple have applied to get married under the Special Marriage Act without following either Christian or Muslim rituals. Court approval is not necessary for interfaith marriages, and the matter had come to the court only because of the kidnapping complaint. The couple have clarified that there was never any threat of violence against them.

What was a local issue in Kodenchery, where Christians are a sizeable community, was turned into a state-wide controversy by former MLA and CPM district secretariat member George M. Thomas. He called the alliance an example of “love jihad” — a Right-wing coinage that portrays Muslim men as predators who woo and marry non-Muslim women to convert and radicalise them.

Joisna told reporters her relationship with Shejin had begun a few months ago. “I’m under no pressure to convert. We have an understanding that I shall remain a Christian until my death,” she said.

Thomas’s allegation has put the CPM under tremendous pressure since the party has always maintained that it does not differentiate between people on the ground of religion and has insisted that “love jihad” is a Right-wing myth.

The party’s Kozhikode district secretary, P. Mohanan, on Wednesday claimed Thomas’s use of the term “love jihad” was “a slip of the tongue”.

“He has informed the party that it was a mistake on his part,” Mohanan said.

Mohanan, however, found fault with Shejin for not informing the party about his marriage plans, as all CPM workers are expected to do.

“The party does not see anything unnatural in this marriage, although we feel Shejin should have informed the party,” he said.

Shejin agreed. “The only lapse on my part is that I didn’t inform the party and avoid this unnecessary controversy,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “The local party leadership has assured all support to us.”

Party sources on Thursday told this newspaper the couple had moved to a southern Kerala district where they would stay till the situation calmed down in their hometown.

The CPM local committee held a meeting at Kodenchery on Wednesday to caution party leaders and workers about attempts by the Congress and the BJP to leverage the issue in the future.

The “love jihad” campaign had always been seen as a solely Sangh parivar plank before Bishop Mar Joseph Kallarangatt of Pala Diocese urged Christians last September to protect their youth from “love jihad” and “narcotic jihad”.

“When the goal is to destroy non-Muslims, they use several methods to achieve it. Two such methods are ‘love jihad’ and ‘narcotic jihad’,” the bishop had said, triggering controversy.

On Wednesday, the DYFI launched an online campaign calling the allegation of “love jihad” a “manufactured lie” and describing the controversy surrounding Shejin and Joisna as “unfortunate”.

It congratulated the couple and their “secular marriage” at a time “efforts are on to tighten the grip of religion in every sphere of life including arts and politics”.

“A marriage between two grown-ups is entirely their private affair. The declared position of the DYFI is to lend support to those who want to live their lives together irrespective of caste, religion, wealth and gender,” it said.