A number of leading women activists on Thursday opposed the use of “Love Jihad” as the “latest hate tool to polarise two communities and spread falsehood and hatred”. They also charged that the issue was being used by Hindutva elements to “demoralise and demonise the Muslim community”. Coming together at the Indian Womens Press Corps here, the women activists – who included lawyers, writers and researchers – warned that attempts were being made across the country on a war footing by certain Hindu forces, backed by political parties, to create a scenario which resembled the 2002 pogrom The gathering was addressed by social activists and lawyers Teesta Setalvad and Vrinda Grover, Jagmati Sangwan from All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDUA), Annie Raja from National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) and researcher Manisha Bhalla. Ms. Grover lamented that “now a womans body is used as tool for vote bank politics in the name of love jihad.” “We will not tolerate this. We are not in favour of forcible conversions, if a woman says that she is converted forcefully, we will stand by her, though political parties will take advantage of it for political gains and leave. BJP is doing a shameless campaign with double and triple-pronged approach. Their people are not helping or supporting sufferers but exploiting them to serve their own ends,” she charged. Also a lawyer, Ms Setalvad, questioned the veracity and motive of the charges. “In 99.5 cases, I have found as a practising lawyer that the data shows no high or low class percentage and it is not clear whether a man has raped a woman because she is a woman from another religion!” For her part, Ms. Raja questioned what “Ministers like Nihal Chand, who is summoned in a rape case” were doing in the Union Cabinet. “In 2005, President Pranab Mukherjee had constituted an Empowered Group of Ministers for presenting a report on violence on women. That report is still pending. We prepared a report and gave it to the National Commission for Women and now we are demanding an appropriate law and its enactment depending upon that report,” she said. Ms. Sangwan presented a picturesque account of how Rohtak, her home town in Haryana, is reeling under immense pressure because two women committed suicide and political parties were utilising the issue to their benefit. “The so called Love Jihad is not to save bahu-betis of the country but to control the assertion and autonomy of minority communities like Dalits and Muslims. They are targeting Muslim venerability for political interest. This mass mobilisation against the minority community is going on as RSS ideology since 1920; those who read history know this for a fact.” As their next action plan, AIDUA will also start a signature campaign, especially among youth of the community across schools, colleges and universities against using love jihad as a tool for spreading hatred, while NFYW will in initiate a get together of inter-caste and inter-religion couples who are happily married in September in Delhi. The campaign would also be carried forward through seminars, discussions, debates and signatures at the regional level in the coming months. Teesta Setalvad #lovejihad
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 10:06:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015