Strident campaign running against inter-religion marriages

Nagpur: Around 100 persons gather in a room of the Rajkumar Kewalramani School at Jaripatka, listening to speakers making fervent appeals to ‘rise to the occasion’. The speakers, from different Sangh Parivar bodies, mince no words in putting across the message to fight ‘love jihad’ to an audience comprising both young and old.
They appeal to the audience to start a ‘dharmyudha’ against love jihad, ‘putting aside’ secularism and pluralism as Hindutva is at stake. Their refrain is Muslim groups are systematically targeting Hindu girls, and luring them into marriage, only to exploit them. Instilling core Hindutva values can only save them, they say.
TOI attended one such meeting on Tuesday at Jaripatka, with more held every week since last two months. The trigger, they say, were the recent marriages of three girls to Muslim men. The group claimed that two of them could be brought back to the fold, but parents of the third had accepted the marriage. The names of the girls were not disclosed, citing confidentiality.
Leaflets are distributed in households that speak about love jihad, warning parents to keep an eye on their daughters, and also instil religious values in them. The girls falling into the trap may even end up being trafficked, reads a pamphlet.
“Pamphlets running into thousands have been distributed in Jaripatka. The efforts have yielded results and the number of Muslims frequenting the locality has reduced substantially. Some who had small shops are also not to be seen these days,” said one of the speakers, appealing for the drive to continue.
Jaripatka has a large population of Sindhis. The Sindhi community is especially vulnerable to conversion attempts these days, though this has spread to Sadar division too, said speakers.
“Some Sindhis have also converted to Christianity. It’s time to act. How long can we remain pacifist, even Lord Krishna preaches about taking up arms for Dharma,” said one of the speakers. Quickly adding a disclaimer that taking up arms means countering love jihad thorough strict but peaceful means.
“The drive is to awaken Hindutva among residents here, so they stick to their religion,” said one of the speakers citing examples of Hindu girls getting married to boys of other religions.
“We have been able to save a number of girls from being converted after marriage. Once, a hardcore Hindu girl was baited by love jihadis for being vocal against them. A doctor’s daughter was also a victim, and they also made her a drug addict,” said a speaker.
They target girls from homes where there are problems, and exploit them emotionally, said the speaker. Calls were made to create pressure on the family where a girl is getting married out of the religion.
“A family had converted to Christianity, and when a member died the last rites were done according to that religion. The neighbours should have insisted the body should be cremated according to Hindu customs, only then should they help them in the last rites,” another speaker said.
“We need to act against some places of worship of other religions. The household nearby can also play loud devotional music, said one of them”.
The meet was coordinated by Purushottam Ranglani, Gaurav Sharma, and Rajkumar Sharma, belonging to various outfits working against love jihad.