RSS sticks to ‘love jihad’ agenda despite U-turn in Meerut case

 

Lucknow, 20 Oct 2014: Even as the BJP’s claimed "love jihad" case of Meerut boomeranged following girl’s statement that she was forced to make it a case of love jihad, RSS was quick to cite Jharkand love jihad case and claimed that the issue has plagued Hindu society for the past 15 years.

 

However, quickly correcting it, RSS general secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi said that though the issue should not been seen on communal lines but a social problem where innocent girls are conned into marriage and later exploited. He said that since love jihad is a issue concerning the society, it is the issue of the RSS also.

 

There has been a awareness over the issue in the past a few years but more was needed to be done, the senior RSS functionary said and added that the administration should take stringent action in such cases in a bid to discourage those involved in such social crime.

 

The administration should be more serious on the issue in order to curb it. Retracting from her earlier statement, the 22-year-old girl from Kharkhauda police station in Meerut made a statement before the authorities that she had gone with the accused boy on her own will and that she was forced to make it a case of love jihad following the pressure from her parents.

 

The BJP, interestingly, had then latched on the issue and had even made it bypoll issue with one of the three star campaigners Mahant Adityanath raking up during his speeches. In Jharkhand, national shooter Tara Shahdeo filed an FIR claiming that her husband Ranjit Kohli aka Rakibul Hasan had forced her to convert to Islam. The case was being investigated. Kohli had been arrested in the matter.

 

Similarly, the senior sangh functionary Bhaiyyaji Joshi claimed that "honour killing" was wrong and that sangh had been protesting against any such crime that was against the society. Interestingly, RSS has time and again refrained from giving its views on the issue seen as a bid not to annoy khaps that are dominant in states like Haryana, Rajasthan and west UP region.