'Love Jihad': BJP drops it from agenda, but Sangh affiliates will make it a poll issue

It is more than apparent already that the Sangh parivar has chosen to further polarise the state of Uttar Pradesh with their comments on ’love jihad’ and, last week, the so-called “reconversion” or “ghar-wapasi” of Dalit Christians in Aligarh. In addition, reports now suggest that the various Sangh-affiliates such as the Vishwa Hindu PArishad, the Hindu Jagran Manch, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha have decided to join hands and create a united front to counter alleged conversions of Hindu girls converted to Islam after marrying Muslim men.   [caption id=“attachment_1684685” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] The Indian Express reports that the first such front has been formed in Meerut, called the Meerut Bachao Manch. Meerut is incidentally where a young woman who taught in a madarsa had alleged that she had been gangraped and forcibly converted to Islam. According to the report, the new front has demanded action in that case and has also meanwhile demanded that the adminstration institute measures to curb instances of “love jihad”. “RSS sources said such organisations would also be set up in Moradabad, Muzaffarnagar, Bareilly, Bulandshahr, Saharanpur and Baghpat districts,” the report said. It quoted VHP spokesperson Surendra Kumar Jain as saying the “patriots” would support their crusade against ’love jihad’. All located along the communally sensitive Western Uttar Pradesh belt, many of these districts have been in the news for dramatic incidents of communal violence in recent weeks. At the forefront of these organisations’ activities against the so-called ’love jihad’ is the Dharma Jagran Manch, a wing of the Rashtriya Swayamasevak Sangh (RSS). Around Rakshabandhan earlier this month, the Dharma Jagran Manch launched a week-long campaign of tying rakhis to Hindus, both men and women, and exhorting them to fight ‘love jihad’. Hindu girls would reportedly be requested not to fell prey to youths who lure them into marriage and then convert them, said reports. For its part, the BJP has for all official purposes dropped the issue of ’love jihad’ from its agenda with the Uttar Pradesh unit of the party has formally dropping the phrase from political resolutions ahead of preparations for Assembly bypolls. But that has simply meant transferring the mantle to the fringe elements of the RSS, who will likely be the footsoldiers for the party’s election campaign for the upcoming bypolls to a dozen seats as well as for UP Assembly elections two years later. What’s more, though the BJP is making no official reference to the term in its party campaign material, star campaigner Yogi Adityanath, MP from Gorakhpur, has followed up his earlier exhortations for Hindu men to marry a hundred Muslim girls if one Hindu girl is found to be forcibly converted to Islam with a statement that ‘ love jihad’ would certainly be an issue during the bypolls. Adityanath said, “I have been raising this issue for the past four to five years. The menace first began in Kerala and has now spread to Western UP.” He added that the worst part is that the Samajwadi Party government in the state has turned a blind eye to it. Muslim organisations and scholars have reacted to the efforts with a call for caution. News reports said scholars in Aligarh urged activists and media organisations not to misuse the concept of ’love jihad’ to create misunderstandings among people. “Men and women from both the Hindu and Muslim communities have been marrying one another after falling in love for a long time,” Jasim Mohammed, member of the Forum of Muslim Studies and Analysis ( FMSA), was quoted as saying. “After the BJP came to power, inter-religious marriages have come under the scanner and efforts are being made to polarise society to fan communal fires,” Mohammed said.