'No Entry to Muslims in Garba Celebrations', Says BJP Legislator in Madhya Pradesh
Bhopal | A lawmaker of the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh says she
wants Muslims barred from the "Garba" or a Gujarati dance festival to
be held in several northern states in October.
Usha Thakur, a legislator from Indore and the BJP's state
vice president, is preparing to write to Garba organisers in her constituency,
asking them to stop Muslim men from entering the dance venues and seducing
women.
The decision, she claims, is based on a meeting of
"intellectuals" - including doctors, engineers and a senior police
officer - during the festival season last year.
"We have got data that during the Garba, on an average,
four lakh girls convert to Islam every year. So we have started this awareness
drive. It has been seen that people who have no faith or devotion to the
festival put tilak and wear sacred thread and practice Garba and during that
time woo our girls," Ms Thakur told NDTV.
She says to stop this alleged "Love Jihad",
festival organisers must check IDs at the gates.
The BJP has distanced itself from Ms Thakur's controversial
move, which has been condemned by the opposition Congress.
State home minister Babulal Gaur refused to comment.
"No, I will not react. Usha Thakur will know about this, not me," Mr
Gaur told NDTV.
Congress leader Satyadev Katere said, "The idea is
absurd. You cannot force things on society like this."
Ahead of by-polls on Saturday in key states including Uttar
Pradesh and Gujarat, pro-Hindu groups linked to the BJP's ideological mentor
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have stepped up their campaign against "Love
Jihad" - a term for what they consider an Islamist strategy to convert
Hindu women.
The BJP avoided the term "Love Jihad" last month
when it adopted the subject of forced conversions as a campaign issue for the
by-elections. But some of the party's leaders and its affiliates have been less
circumspect.
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