India: Bahu lao-Beti Bachao Campaign put on temporary hold to prevent opposition protest in Parliament

The Indian Express

Bahu lao-Beti Bachao: VHP puts campaign on hold to save Centre from Opposition storm in Parliament
The VHP has even transferred Bajrang Dal’s state convener Ajju Chauhan to its other wing soon after UP Minority Commission issued a notice to Agra DM and the SSP recently.

Written by Lalmani Verma | Lucknow | Published:July 31, 2015 1:00 am

To avoid Opposition making it an “issue” in the ongoing Parliament session, RSS offshoot VHP’s youth wing, Bajrang Dal, has been directed to put on hold its ‘Bahu Lao-Beti Bachao’ campaign which was launched by the outfit in February. The campaign was running in west UP districts in the first phase.

The VHP has even transferred Bajrang Dal’s state convener Ajju Chauhan to its other wing soon after UP Minority Commission issued a notice to Agra DM and the SSP recently, seeking report and recommending action against Bajrang Dal for running the campaign, which it had said is “targeting a particular community and spreading communal hatred” by distributing pamphlets among college-going girls in Agra.

A Bajrang Dal’s senior functionary said: “The VHP has directed us to put the campaign on hold to avoid any controversy that could create problem for the government in the current Parliament session, where various important bills are pending.”

He added that the RSS’ ghar wapsi programme and conversion issues had caused trouble for the Modi government in Parliament last year.

Ajju Chauhan, who was leading the ‘Bahu Lao-Beti Bachao’ campaign, has been transferred to VHP wing ‘Dharma Prasar’ as its in-charge of western UP.

Chauhan said the VHP’s national headquarters has been directed to put on hold the campaign. “I have been shifted to Dharma Prasar wing that functions like Dharma Jagran Vibhag of the RSS which works to stop conversion of Hindus and organises ‘ghar wapsi’ programmes,” he said. Chauhan added that the campaign will resume by the end of August. VHP has not appointed anybody as Chauhan’s replacement so far.

After being given the responsibility of Dharma Prasar wing, Chauhan claimed his team is “in touch with” six girls in a west UP district who had embraced Islam after marrying Muslim youths. “These girls would come back to their family and religion and it will be done within a week,” Chauhan claimed.

He added: “Our campaign’s focus was on educational institutions where the girls are more prone to get trapped in love jihad. But admission process is still on and classes will start by mid of August. We will again launch our campaign then.”

Bajrang Dal had launched the ‘Bahu Lao-Beti Bachao’ campaign in February to counter ‘love jihad’ and “protect Hindu boys who marry Muslim or Christian girls” and also create awareness among Hindu families “to protect their girls from falling in love or getting married to Muslim or Christian boys”.

Bajrang Dal leaders said that the campaign will be a reply to “love jihad” and will seek to bring girls from Muslim or Christian communities as “daughters-in-law for Hindu families”.

The outfit claims that in ‘love jihad’, Muslim youths use fake identities to marry Hindu girls for which they get funding from different organisations. But, in this campaign, Bajrang Dal neither asks the Hindu youths to cheat girls nor provides them any money to lure girls from other communities.

The outfit claims that it will only provide protection to the couple — Hindu boy and Muslim or Christian girl — if they face threat from their families before or after the marriage, and will help couples to tie the wedding knot against their families’ wishes, he added.
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