Bahu Lao Beti Bachao: Irony of Bajrang Dal combining matrimony with politics

Bajrang Dal and matrimony is a weird combination. It reeks of not just political chicanery but also of mythological buffoonery. Activists of Bajrang Dal have vowed to act as matrimonial advisers and inspire Hindu grooms to ‘respect and marry’ girls from other religions. Bahu lao, beti bachao, is their new catchline, a clarion call for reverse love jihad. The Bajrangis claim to be foot soldiers of Bajrang, one of the many names we have for Lord Hanuman. Bajrang, the celibate god, the Bhagwan of Brahmchari, would be squirming after being linked to a campaign that turns on its head the role assigned to him in the pantheon of gods. But petty politicians have a strange way of co-opting religion and religious symbols. And to the Saffron Parivar, everything is fair in love and jihad, even if it implies rebranding Bajrang as the leader of match-makers. [caption id=“attachment_2020141” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  Representational image of Bajrang Dal. AFP image[/caption] You can’t blame them. In the Narendra Modi Raj, members of the lunatic fringe in the Parivar are competing with each other in a sort of fratricidal war of stupidity to remain relevant. Somebody wants to start a ghar wapsi campaign, someone dreams of setting up Nathuram Godse’s statues across India and there are those who want to divide the country on the basis of Ramzaade and Haramzaade. In this free-for-all, the Bajrang Dal wouldn’t have been able to keep its hat out of the ring. Silence means sobriety and seclusion in the lunatic fBahu Lao Beti Bachao: The irony of Bajrang Dal combining religion with politicsringe and nobody is willing to take that risk. So, the Bajrangis have added their fantasy of influencing the matrimonial choices of Indians to this din. In its hurry to coin a slogan that would give them their hour of notoriety, the Bajrangis have taken a U-turn that could be embarrassing to their ideological siblings running the government in Delhi. Only a few days ago, before the results of the by-polls in Uttar Pradesh shut them up, the Parivar was busy protesting a fictitious love jihad. Many BJP leaders and their affiliates were angry that Hindu girls were being snared by Muslim boys and, that marriage was the new tool of the proselytizing rivals. Now, the Bajrangis want to implement the concept the BJP was railing against; they want to marry the very philosophy they wanted to kill. In their eagerness to use marriage as a political tool, the Bajrangis are making convenient assumptions that betray their ignorance of Indian customs and psyche. First, inter-caste marriages in India are uncommon and inter-religious marriages are rare. The Bajrangis appear convinced that their efforts and preachings would bring about a nuptial renaissance in the society. Like their divine inspiration, the Bajrangis seem to believe that they too are Mahavir, Mahabali and capable of achieving impossible feats. Two, they seem to believe Indian girls are like cattle and they can be snared and brought to the gates of a new owner with a bit of prodding, pleading and scheming. Even when they screamed and shouted against love jihad, the Bajrangis and their affiliates were guilty of erroneously assuming that girls-Hindus in this case-have no sense of right or wrong, lack the ability to make the right matrimonial choice and that they can be led astray by scheming, vile boys from other communities. Obviously, the ignoramuses haven’t heard that even in the mythological age of Bajrang, even kings respected their daughter’s right and ability to choose her husband. Thankfully, Indians do not take perpetrators of such fantastic ideas seriously. We all know from their past that the Bajrangis are reminders of the age when members of the Lord’s mythological army used to swing from trees.