As Uttar Pradesh continues to be afflicted by the increasing number of Grooming Jihad cases, the residents of the state have taken upon themselves to report suspected cases with the help of social media networks, in an attempt to nip the menace in the bud.
As per a report published in the Times of India, a strong network of landlords, neighbours, temple managers, marriage registration officers, lawyers and others are involved in reporting on the potential cases of Grooming Jihad relationships fostering in their midst.
Initially, it is those who are close to the couples, such as neighbours and the family relatives, who approach the Hindu groups to save their daughters or acquaintance from falling into potential cases of Grooming Jihad. But on the second level, neighbours, temple managers, lawyers, marriage registration officers, parents and others, who were earlier shy of approaching Hindu organisations, have openly reported the possible grooming jihad cases to them.
“There is seismic change in the outlook of the parents and people who would earlier go against us,” said Chetna Sharma, the national president of Hindu Swabhiman, adding, “things are changing now are concerned parents and neighbours come to them to save their daughters from getting into a wrong relationship”. Sharma told TOI that every year she rescues 15 girls on an average from wrong marriages.
Neighbours, temple managers, family relatives act as informers to nip potential cases of grooming jihad in the bud
Aligarh convenor of Bajrang Dal Gaurav Sharma and former west UP convenor Balraj Dungar echoed similar sentiments about the growing awareness among people with regard to incidents of grooming jihad. They confessed that an array of people, from businessmen to students, to neighbours, act as informers, apprising the Hindu organisations of potential grooming jihad cases blossoming in their vicinity.
“We did not have to prowl streets in search for the Bareily couple,” Dungar said while referring to an interfaith couple from Bareilly whose landlord reported them on Tuesday this week. Dungar informed that even social media websites are used to keep track of the probable cases of grooming jihad. He said that every year his organisation stops at least 20 to 30 potential cases.
The Meerut circle convenor of the Hindu Yuva Vahini informed that his organisations had eyes on temples where Hindu girls would come with Muslim men to get married and temple managers would let them know about the interfaith marriages.
UP government passes ordinance to curb the menace of Grooming Jihad
The Uttar Pradesh government recently enacted a law to curb the rising menace of Muslim men pretending to be Hindu to lure Hindu girls into relationships, a phenomenon known as grooming jihad, also known as love jihad. The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath cleared an ordinance against forced conversions, which the Yogi Adityanath government has been mulling ever since the cases of the purported crime had been reported from various parts of the state.
The decision to promulgate an ordinance was taken after a spate of cases of forced conversions of Hindu woman by Muslim men, on the pretext of marriage, had come to the fore. Though, cases of love jihad have been reported from across the length and breadth of the state, Kanpur had emerged as the epicentre of ‘organised love jihad’ cases. There have been several cases of forced conversions of women on the pretext of marriage reported from the city that it has fuelled suspicions about a new model of entrapping Hindu women gaining a foothold in the city.
OpIndia has decided to use the term ‘Grooming Jihad‘ in place of ‘Love Jihad’ for the latter term fails to capture the gravity of the Jihad that is being waged by sections of radical Muslims to target non-Muslim women. Non-Muslim women are being groomed to accept their own subjugation at the hands of Muslim men. They are kidnapped, raped, lured, converted to Islam, punished and brainwashed. There is no ‘Love’ in these crimes against humanity. There is no ambiguity that it is a form of Jihad. We believe that the term ‘Grooming Jihad’ is far more appropriate since it encapsulates within itself all categories of crimes that keep women at the centre of this Jihad.
