Ahead of Valentine’s Day, even as right-wing organisations start prepping to threaten couples celebrating the holiday, VHP international president Pravin Togadia struck a contradictory note and said that ‘young men and women have the right to love’.
Ahead of Valentine’s Day, even as right-wing organisations start prepping to threaten couples celebrating the holiday, VHP international president Pravin Togadia struck a contradictory note and said that ‘young men and women have the right to love’.
Speaking to VHP and Bajrang Dal supporters in Chandigarh ahead of Valentine’s Day, Togadia was quoted saying by Hindustan Times: “Prem nahi karenge to vivah nahi hoga, vivah nahi hoga to srishti kaise chalegi? Yuva aur yuvtiyon ko prem karne ka poora adhikar hai. Vo adhikar unhe milna chaiye (If couples don’t fall in love, there’ll be no marriages. If there’ll be no marriages, the world won’t progress. Young men and women have the right to love, and they should get this right).”
Togadia also asked right-wing groups not to hold protests saying that ‘our daughters and sisters have the right to love’.
Ahead of Valentine’s Day, members of the Shiv Sena in Muzaffarnagar conducted a ‘lathi puja’ on Sunday and declared that sticks would come in handy to ‘teach a lesson’ to couples.
According to a report in Times of India, on Sunday, dozens of members organised the ‘ritual’ at its office in Prakash Chowk in the city and announced they would ‘stop celebrations’. Reacting to the news, Aaditya Thackeray condemned those members saying it was not the ‘party line’.
He wrote: “Absolutely not Party line. Will check who has done this and why.”
The party’s deputy head for UP Lalit Mohan Sharma said: “Our workers will visit restaurants and hotels and conduct checks. We have also warned owners of such establishments not to organize Valentine’s Day events. There could be a risk of property damage, for which the owners themselves will be responsible.”
Meanwhile, police officers said that no one would be allowed to disturb the peace and adequate police personnel would be deployed at public places on February 14.
Right-wing groups have often targeted couples on Valentine’s Day.
In Ahmedabad, posters came up on V-Day urging youngsters to stay away from ‘love jihad’.
Most of these posters, which resemble stickers, have been put up outside colleges. One half of the poster shows a woman’s face which is semi-covered by a burqa, and is captioned, ‘Hindu women, be warned.’ The other half reads ‘Say no to Valentine’s Day’.
Bajrang Dal, the right-wing organisation behind the endeavour, said its twin purpose is to inform youngsters about the dangers of love jihad and how Valentine’s Day celebrations are against Indian culture.
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