Garba venues are an ideal place to seed love-jihad – Gujarat VHP Spokesperson

Four Muslim youth were recently thrashed to near death in Ahmedabad for trying to enter into Garba venue, after half a dozen Bajrang Dal & VHP volunteers, donning a symbolic saffron scarf, identified the four Muslim men at the entrance of the RK Party Plot on Sindhu Bhavan Road.

The video of the incident has since gone viral on the internet, showing four Muslim men were beaten, and even one of them was stripped, punched and kicked. While the local police have assured a thorough investigation in the matter, Hindu-outfit groups like Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad have already claimed responsibility.

While speaking exclusively to The Quotes, Gujarat VHP spokesperson Hitendrasingh Rajput has revealed that many such cases have occurred in the past where the origin of love-jihad was found to be festive venues.

“We just want to be protective towards our community. No one wants any fringe element to enter their celebration and disrupt the harmony. Such festive venues are idol places to seed love-jihad. That’s why we are ensuring no people from such community or religion should enter our venues,” he said.

Speaking of the most recent incident where four men have identified as Muslims at the entrance of the grab a venue, Mr Rajput said that these four men were caught filming girls entering the venue. “When we confronted them, one of them fled, but the rest were caught. We understood that they belonged to different religions and were looking for ways to enter the Garba venue,” added Mr Rajput.

While reports have claimed that authorities in Madhya Pradesh are checking the Aadhar card of people attending festive venues, Mr Hitendrasingh Rajput believes that he does not have any such official authority to check anyone’s identity, but his boys are using peaceful means to keep the venues safe.