Won't allow Muslims at Garba to prevent love jihad: Right-wing group in Gujarat

Ahmedabad: A right-wing group on Monday said it had issued a “diktat” barring entry of Muslims at Garba events during the upcoming Navratri festival at Mandvi town in Gujarat’s Kutch district to prevent “love jihad” incidents. [caption id=“attachment_2455222” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] “We have issued a diktat barring the entry of Muslims at Garba events in Mandvi,” said president of Hindu Yuva Sangthan, Raghuvirsinh Jadeja, who is also chief of Vishwa Hindu Parishad of the Mandvi tehsil unit. “Incidents of love jihad where Muslim boys lure and marry our Hindu girls happen at Garba. Our only aim is to protect our girls,” Jadeja told PTI. “We are getting a good response from the people and if the people from other regions respond to this movement, then we will spread it to their regions as well,” he said. The organisation will ensure that any person entering the Garba pandal has a tilak on his forehead, and ‘Gaumutra’(cow-urine) will be sprayed on him, he said. “If a person does not apply tilak and hesitates to be sprayed with Gaumutra, he will not be allowed to go inside. “My people would do patrolling outside and inside Garba events and if they find any non-Hindus, they would exclude them,” he said. When asked how will they identify non-Hindus, he said, “We can identify such elements.” This is not the first time that right-wing groups have created controversy by making such a demand. In September 2014, VHP leader Pravin Togadia had said that Muslims must not be allowed inside the Garba events and had insisted identity cards of each and every person be checked for participants in and visitors to such events. “We must be alert so that not a single Muslim person can enter in our Garba festival. Identity cards of each and every person must be checked at every Garba event,” Togadia had said. In fact, a BJP MLA from Madhya Pradesh, Usha Thakur, had also made a similar demand in 2014. Thakur had asked party workers to ensure that Muslim youth are not allowed to enter Garba venues in her constituency during the annual Navdurga festival, alleging that Hindu girls are lured by them and converted to Islam as part of the ’love jihad’ to distort population ratio in the country. (With inputs from PTI)