BJP, ‘Love-Jihad’ and elections ......

For nearly a month in the run-up to the by-elections to 11 assembly seats and one parliamentary seat on saturday 13 September in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has been relentlessly playing its divisive ‘Love-Jihad’ card. The chagesheeting of Amit Shah, former party general secretary and now president, for alleged hate speech in April seems to be having no effect. Nor has the ban on BJP MP Yogi Adityanath or the election commission notice for violation of model code has had any effect. The country is witnessing an open defiance of the law of the land. In its bid to repeat its victory in parliamentary elections in by-elections on Saturday, the party is using every weapon in its armoury, however dangerous for peace and stability of the state and the nation. Not satisfied with its leader Amit Shah’s old slogan of ‘badla’ or revenge for the alleged disrespect (apmaan) to the majority community by minority community members during last year’s Muzaffarnagar riots , the Sangh parivar has sharpened its new love-jihad weapon. Yogi’s violation of both state government’s ban on his pulic meetings in Lucknow and elsewhere and EC’s notice is a double defiance. He has been unashamedly propagating the myth of Hindu girls being lured by Muslim men into marriage and conversion to Islam. Without any facts or figures the Yogi has been spreading his campaign of fear and suspicion. The EC’s notice has been served too late – only four days before the bye-elections! As in Amit Shah’s case, the damage has already been done. His hate campaign had a free run for several weeks. Even the Sangh parivar’s official news weeklies – the Organiser in English and Panchjanya in Hindi – have joined in the love-jihad campaign. Strangely enough the Election Commission has not served them any notice for violating the model code. By its very name love-jihad is an highly emotional and separatist weapon capable of poisoning young minds. It is a new kind of ‘khap’ which goes beyond sect and gotra and invades the religious domain or territory. It is Sangh parivar’s fatwa against inter-religious marriages. Real love and marriage have no boundaries. It is a matter between the couples and their God with no room for any politician or religious fanatic to interfere. The world today is witnessing not just cross-gotra, cross-sect, cross-religion marriages but even inter-racial marriages. Are the Sangh parivar and its counterparts in other religions going to annul (nakkar) all those marriages across the world? At a more local local, what about the case of BJP leaders Shahnawaz Hussain and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi who have been long married to Hindu women? asks SP leader and UP minister Azam Khan. Who has trapped (phasaya) whom? .....................................................................................................................................................................