Hyderabad: Garba and Dandiya event organisers in the city to make Aadhaar cards mandatory for those taking part in Navratri celebrations to check entry of those belonging to “non-Hindu communities”. The outfit asked organisers to make Aadhaar cards mandatory at the entry spot “to detect non-Hindus entering venues”.
According to the outfit, this is to prevent “Love Jihad”. They have also warned that their ‘karyakartas’ will remain present at Navratri events in the city to “take action” against non-Hindus entering the venues. In a letter to organisers of Dandiya and Garba events – traditional Gujarati dances that people participate in during Navratri – Bajrang Dal claimed that non-Hindu men who did not have a “devotion” during Navratri used the occasion to harass women, and to “trap” them in “Love Jihad”.
The outfit told event organisers and venue owners to take measures to prevent “unwanted situations” during Navratri. The letter said: “Since a couple of years, it has been observed that groups of youth of non-Hindu communities are entering these events, and since they have no concern and respect towards the divinity of the event they often misbehave with women participating in garba/dandiya.”
The outfit said they have also sent a letter to the city’s three commissionerates. Rubbishing the claims of harassment by nonHindu men, Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar said, “Anyone can claim anything, but I have collected information from all the inspectors… inspection is going on, and there is no disturbance anywhere. We are collecting information every two hours, everything is normal.”
The letter asked event managers to also to avoid employing non-Hindu bouncers for these events. Bajrang Dal media convener Kailash Sajjan said, “Dandiya and Garba are devotional performances through which Hindus express their devotion. Why should people who do not believe in Hindu idol worship come? They come and disrespect the goddess.”
Authored by Mohammed Hussain, mohammedhussain.reporter@gmail.com Twitter:Â @writetohussain