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Hindu Dad in U-turn on "Love Jihad"
10-21-2014
In a new turning point in the claimed “love jihad” story between a Hindu teacher and a Muslim in Merrut district in northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, the father of the girl said his daughter can marry the Muslim youth, a decision vehemently criticized by Hindutva groups.
“She is a grown up girl now. Who are we to force her?” Narendra Tyagi, the father of the girl, resident of Sarava village just a few kilometres away from Meerut, told The Hindu on phone on Thursday, October 16.
“Even if it is a case of ‘love jihad’ she can marry Kaleem if she loves him. It is ok if she would be happy that way,” he added.
Reflecting a growing Hindu-Muslim tension, Meerut district caught communal fight after a 20-year-old woman, who taught English and Hindi at a Madrassah at Sarawa village in Kharkhauda area of Meerut district, alleged that a group of Muslim men had abducted, gang-raped and forced her to convert to Islam.
After the incident came to light, Muslims living in the village fled fearing reprisals from Hindu organizations.
Following days of unrest in the district, the teacher changed her statement in the court, saying that she had eloped with her boyfriend and was not abducted.
The new statement by the 52-year-old Tyagi comes two days after the girl ran away from her parents with her Muslim lover and claimed that her family had forced her to give false statements of gang-rape and forcible conversion against him.
Moreover, the girl accused her parents of threatening to murder her, escaping to a government shelter house for women in Meerut city.
Making the new statement, Tyagi said that his daughter should withdraw the case of assault and threatening to murder against him and his wife.
“We are her parents and do not want to harm her or publicize her personal life. It is the political parties which approached us and created a controversy in order to draw mileage out of this issue,” he told The Hindu.
“She should not punish us for wanting good for her. She want to see her happy and if she is happy with Kaleem, let that be. She should withdraw her complaint against us because we won’t harm her at all,” he added.
Angry Hindutva
The new position of the father has sparked Hindutva groups’ anger, who encouraged the father not to allow the union of the couple.
“It is a conspiracy hatched at a big level. But let me tell you that we won’t allow the girl (Tyagi’s daughter) to marry that ‘love jihadi’,” Ajay Tyagi, the chief of Meerut Bahan Beti Bachao Andolan Hindutva outfit, said adding that he won’t allow a Hindu girl to marry a Muslim man.
“We are trying to convince Tyagi ji not to think like that. Nobody can harm him by any complaint because she is her daughter and also our izzat. It is a matter of Hindu asmita,” reinforced the chief of the right wing outfit.
The support of Hindu groups goes back to the beginning of the problem.
In August 7 and only day after the incident came to light, the girl alleged that Vineet Agarwal, a BJP functionary, had offered her family Rs 25,000 and assured them help with more money in future.
“Vinit Agarwal Sharda had given us money but it was to help and not given to pressurize us to change her statement,” Tyagi, who has a small plot of farming land to earn his livelihood, confirmed.
Hindu organizations including the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS), Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and even many BJP leaders have been alleging that in a bid to increase the population of their community a section of Muslim men have waged love jihad or an organized religious war to entice or force Hindu girls to convert to Islam and marry them.
RSS, VHP and their several offshoots call the Muslim boys “Jihadi Romeos” and charge that they adopt fake Hindu identities to get closer to “naive” Hindu girls,
Hindutva organizations claim that the Muslims, who constitute less than 14% of country’s population, are seeking more Muslim children because they are on a mission to turn India into a Muslim-majority country.
Several highly educated Hindus too subscribe to this theory of love jihad, as floated by the Hindutva groups.
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