Hadiya's father KM Ashokan joins BJP in Kerala, pledges support to Sabarimala stir

KM Ashokan, father of Hadiya, a 26-year-old Kerala woman who converted to Islam and married a Muslim man in 2016, joined the BJP. According to reports, Ashokan was given the party membership by BJP spokesperson B Gopalakrishnan. After joining the party, Ashokan also made an official appearance at the Sabarimala Protection meeting. [caption id=“attachment_5499661” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] “I was a Communist but decided to shift my allegiance after I realised the party was going in the wrong direction. Its stand on various issues made a bad impression on me. Even though I had joined BJP three years ago, I received the official membership only on Sunday,” Ashokan said. Ashokan’s daughter Hadiya, who was called Akhila before she converted to Islam and married Shafin Jahan in 2016, had reportedly claimed that “her life had been under threat” before the Supreme Court's March 2018 verdict that reversed the Kerala High Court’s annulment of the marriage. Earlier, Ashokan had approached the Kerala High Court alleging his daughter was a victim of ’love jihad’, a concept propagated by right-wing bodies which believe that Muslim men lure young Hindu women and convert them to Islam with the promise of marriage. Restoring the validity of the marriage between Hadiya and Shafin, the apex court had said that the probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the alleged criminal angle of ’love jihad’ would continue. The court granted “absolute liberty” to Hadiya, then the 25-year-old. She had vehemently denied the charges of it being a victim of ’love jihad’. With inputs from agencies