NEW DELHI: Vishva Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) young women’s wing Durga Vahin recently launched a campaign which aimed to ‘reconvert’ Hindu women who married Muslim men, claiming that the “ghar wapsi” campaign must address “love jihad,” Hindustan Times reported.
A half niqab faced Kareena Kapoor was morphed on to the cover of the latest issue of Himalaya Dhwani, which was devoted to this theme. The text below the picture reads: “conversion of nationality through religious conversion.”
When questioned about why the film actor was used, northern India’s regional coordinator Rajni Thukral claimed “she is a celebrity. The youth try to emulate celebrities. They think if she can do so, why not us?”
“Sixteen Hindu women who married Muslim men posing as Hindus have approached us for ghar wapsi. We have already reconverted two. One has also been remarried,” Thukral told HT.
“There has been much debate on love jihad and conversions. The nation was divided and Pakistan was created because of conversions. If a girl gets caught in Love Jihad and becomes Muslim by mistake and now wants to return to her original faith, isn’t it her right? It’s strange that some parties claiming to be secular call this conversion,” she wrote in the editorial section of the magazine.
She claimed that “love jihad” was a “serious” issue in Himachal Pradesh adding that Vahini would be going to 3000 villages to apprise the state government of the large scale of “love jihad”.
Taking up the matter on a national level, a conclave was carried out in Madhya Pradesh with another one to be held in Delhi in early March Thukral informed.
Reacting to the cover, Saif Ali Khan told HT, “It’s ridiculous and not surprising… but these uneducated and bigoted ideas are the worst of India and condemning them is important”.
Within the VHP, women aged between 15 to 35 stay in Durga Vahini and are taught military-style combat a revisionist history that promotes Hindu supremacy; after which they join the VHP’s women’s wing Matr Shakti.