Bajrang Dal unleashes drive against ‘love jihad’
Grocery store owner Vinay Surana, 30, looked alarmed as he studied a pamphlet outside Kadri Manjunatha Temple in Mangaluru. Splattered across the pamphlet was the image of a woman behind a veil, behind prison bars, blood flowing from her eyes. It stated: “Hindu girls, beware... it is not love, but jihad.”
Surana said, “It has to be true. We have heard about these cases in Kerala.”
A few children outside the temple also pored over similar pamphlets that carried the name of Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).
Surana and the children are among thousands in this town in coastal Dakshina Kannada district who have received the pamphlets since the Bajrang Dal started its campaign against “love jihad”, a term seen to have emerged from fringe Hindutva outfits to describe what they believe are forced marriages between Muslim men and Hindu women. The campaign started on January 3 and was to last 15 days, but the Bajrang Dal decided to extend it. It has not said till when.
“It’s not that we are against love, even inter-faith. We are only saying women should be careful that they are not used for jihad,” said Sharan Pumpwell, Bajrang Dal’s Karnataka secretary.
The Bajrang Dal’s campaign follows at least a month’s unease in Karnataka over a spate of murders, many of which polarised opinion amid claims that the slain people were Hindutva activists. When the victims were Muslims, similar claims emerged from fringe Muslim bodies.
For instance, after 18-year-old Paresh Mesta’s body was found in a lake in Uttara Kannada district in December last year, BJP leader Shobha Karandlaje, Lok Sabha MP for Udupi Chikmagalur, alleged the teenager was murdered because he was a Hindu activist. She also alleged Mesta’s body was mutilated and set afire.
A doctor who examined Mesta’s body said it was not mutilated or set on fire. Mesta’s father later said his son was not affiliated with any organisation.
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Suresh Bhat Bakrabail, a member of Komu Sauharda Vedike (Communal Harmony Forum), said, “Mere polarisation against Muslims is no longer working. This is why there is an emphasis on jihadis.”
Muneer Katipalla, president of the state unit of Democratic Youth Federation of India, said the rise of fringe Hindutva groups has also meant proliferation of Popular Front of India (PFI), an Islamist outfit. Abdul Razak Kemmar, PFI’s state secretary, shared his theory on “love jihad”. He said the problem with “love jihad” is more Muslim women marrying Hindu men than the other way around. “What do we call that?” he asked.
PFI and Bajrang Dal are charged with the murder of rivals. Kemmar said even if PFI members were implicated in acts of violence, these were personal issues. Pumpwell took the same line. Both groups laid the responsibility for peace on each other’s doorstep. “We too want peace, and it will come. But only after they leave our cows and women alone,” said Pumpwell. Kemmar said, “Hindutva groups are attacking us, calling us jihadis. We only want Muslims empowered.”