Battling 'love jihad': BJP MLA wants Muslim men kept out of garbas in MP

If you thought the furore regarding ’love jihad’ was restricted to Uttar Pradesh, think again. As right wing groups emphasise the need to battle it, a BJP MLA in Madhya Pradesh has taken it a step further by issuing a diktat to ensure that Muslim men aren’t allowed to attend garbas in Indore to prevent women from becoming victims of ’love jihad’. [caption id=“attachment_1705553” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Garba is celebrated during the nine-days before Navratri. AFP[/caption] If you are thinking of sneaking in that option is out too. In a brilliant stroke, Usha Thakur, who is also the vice-president for BJP’s MP unit, has decided to write to all garba organisers in her constituency to make electoral photo-identity cards mandatory for those who want to enter the function, a report in said. But it’s not just the influence of Muslim youths the MLA is worried about. Thakur, who began her political career as a municipal councillor in 1994 and is an MLA since 2003, is also against women wearing low-waist ghagras and backless cholis during the festival and says women who lack self confidence should instead chant shlokas about goddess Durga. An 11-point guideline released by Samagra Kranti Chetna Manch, an organisation Thakur is the convenor of, lists out things you should do to “maintain discipline, culture and propriety” during the Navdurga festival which insists people to wear traditional dresses, play religious and folk songs and prohibits them from dancing to “puerile and indecent” songs. The list ends with reference to “love jihad” but without talking about Islam and insists on identity cards without elaborating it. This diktat was soon followed by another statement bolstering the BJP’s stand on “love jihad” when BJP’s Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath in a statement on Tuesday said that “jihad in the name of love is unacceptable” and only a BJP government in Uttar Pradesh can stop forcerful conversions of Hindu girls.