The Hindu Jagran Manch, an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has announced that from next week it will marry 2,100 Muslim women to Hindu men, The Indian Express reported on Friday.
The organisation said that this would be under its new programme “beti bachao, bahu lao”, and that it would provide both financial and social security to the newly-weds. The wedding would be as per Hindu rituals, it said, adding that the women would not have to convert to Hinduism.
The chief of the organisation’s Uttar Pradesh unit, Ajju Chauhan, said that this was a form of “love jihad”, only in reverse. Love jihad is the alleged practice where Muslim men court Hindu girls under false pretenses to convert them to Islam.
“Only Hindu girls are being targeted by Muslim youths in love jihad,” Chauhan said. “They hide their Muslim identity, wear sacred thread on wrists, tilak on forehead and even recite Hanuman Chalisa to trap Hindu girls...We will teach them in their own language.”
He claimed that the campaign will also control the population. “If a Muslim girl is married into a Muslim family, she will have to deliver 10 children and when these children grow up they will speak against Hindus,” he claimed. “But if that girl is married to a Hindu family, she will not have to deliver that many children and she will be an addition to the Hindu population.”
The group had reportedly launched a campaign to “save Hindu girls” in Uttar Pradesh in 2016 too. They had planned to educate Hindu girls about the “ill-effects of marrying a Muslim man” by distributing pamphlets in many schools.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!