Woman’s denial of love jihad gives the lie to BJP claim
13, Oct 2014
When a 22-year-old woman from Meerut alleged gang rape and forced conversion in August, several BJP leaders, including Yogi Adityanath, the BJP’s by-poll campaign in-charge in the State, took up the issue. But on Sunday, she said in a written statement at a women’s police station that she had run away with a Muslim man out of her own free will.
She complained of a threat from her family, and denied gang rape or forcible conversion.
The allegation by the former madrasa teacher came close on the heels of the Saharanpur riots, sending western Uttar Pradesh on the boil. The Sangh Parivar and affiliated groups took up the case as a textbook example of “love jihad” — the headline-grabbing term used by Hindutva activists as an Islamist conspiracy to lure and convert Hindu women.
