From polls to ‘love jihad’ to ‘exodus’: how the heat was raised in Uttarakhand

As CM Dhami says no tolerance for “love, land jihad cases”, Cong asks why govt letting an entire community be targeted, reminds it of Nirbhaya – “its accused from Sanatan Dharma”.

Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami directed senior police officials to take strict action in “love jihad” cases. (Express Photo)

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In literally the dying hours of the campaign for the 2022 Assembly elections in Uttarakhand, the incumbent chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami pulled a rabbit out of his hat: if re-elected to power, he said, a BJP government would bring a uniform civil code in the state.

Till then, the election was seen as evenly balanced, with the Congress making all the right moves. The BJP had brought in Yogi Adityanath, its firebrand Uttar Pradesh CM and Hindutva face, and originally a native of Uttarakhand, but only once, on the last day of the campaign.

However, in his new term as CM, Dhami – who was re-named to the post by the BJP despite losing from his own seat – Uttarakhand’s right-wing turn has been getting sharper.

The town that has seen the worst case of it is Purola in Uttarkashi district, around 140 km from Dehradun. Despite the police denying allegations of love jihad in an incident involving a couple recently, right-wing organisations held protest rallies here, joined in by local Vyapar Mandal (trade unions) and residents, seeking verification of “all outsiders coming to the state”.

The demand developed into an anti-Muslim movement, with the community accused of illegal activities. Similar protests and demands to “rid the place of Muslims” were soon seen in Barkot and Chinyalisaur towns and Naugaon, Damta, Barnigad, Netwar, and Bhatwari villages in the district.

Among those who moved out of Purola in the wake of the protests was Zahid Malik, who at least for a while was a local BJP office-bearer.

Also read | In Uttarkashi, ‘love jihad’ row weighs heavy on some shopkeepers, residents

CM Dhami has not denied the surge of such protests in the past two-three months, but adds that “love and land jihad” cases “can’t be tolerated”.

Dhami, who had a meeting with senior police officials recently and directed them to take strict action in “love jihad” cases, has said: “Wherever such incidents have happened, people have become aware and are themselves coming forward. People are coming out against these kinds of crime and against those promoting love jihad as part of a conspiracy. The households where such things have happened are coming out to register their protest.”

Dhami has credited the state’s stricter anti-conversion law – introduced in December last year – for this “awareness”. The state plans to do more, he has said. “We will run verification drives… This is to check who the people coming to Uttarakhand are, where they come from and what is their history. Only after that, will people be allowed to live in Uttarakhand… People might have considered the hills a soft target, but not anymore. Everyone will face an inquiry and strict action.”

In Purola, the district administration has formed joint teams of revenue and police officials to verify the antecedents of those from outside the area.

On the Opposition criticising the government and the vigilantism by bodies such as the VHP, the BJP says the Congress is only doing “appeasement” and should clarify where it stands on “such cases”.

BJP state president Mahendra Bhatt accuses the Congress of “weakening the fight of the people and the government against love jihad and those trying to change the demography of the state”.

The Congress, in turn, says the BJP is deploying polarisation with an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP had swept all the five Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and 2019 in the state, and would want to replicate the same.

Congress state president Karan Mahara says he wants to remind the BJP that governments are run as per law and the Constitution, and should ensure that everyone, no matter which community they belong to, is treated as a citizen of the country.

“Abusing or forcing an entire community to shut shops for someone’s crime is wrong. It is the government’s responsibility to provide security to the people,” Mahara says.

Pointing out that crimes, including sexual, have no religion, he adds: “In many criminal cases, the accused belong to Sanatan Dharma. In the Nirbhaya case (2016 Delhi gangrape), the accused belonged to the same community as the woman… The culprits should be punished, but the government should also ensure that an entire community is not threatened.”

With the VHP and Bajrang Dal announcing a mahapanchayat on Thursday over the alleged love jihad incidents, and saying they “cannnot rule out violence”, Mahara says: “Have the Hindu Vahini or Bajrang Dal been given a free hand for hooliganism? Why didn’t these organisations enter the house of the accused in the Ankita Bhandari murder case (in which a BJP leader’s son is charged)? No one from the BJP came out against the accused then. There cannot be a different approach to different cases of crime.”

The Bajrang Dal and VHP announced their mahapanchayat on “love and land jihad” in Purola, after the district administration got a local organisation to shelve a similar plan.

It will occur three days before a June 18 mahapanchayat called by a ‘Muslim Seva Sangathan’, set up under the leadership of Dehradun Shehar Qazi Mohammad Ahmad Kazmi, in Dehradun to discuss “the atmosphere of hatred against Muslims” in the state.

The Sangathan’s media in-charge Wasim Ahmad says: “Given recent incidents where entire communities of Muslims are being forced to leave their respective towns, we want to put pressure on the state government that the whole community not be targeted.”

Also read | Uniform Civil Code: Can the debate be extricated from identity politics and refocused on gender equality?

As to talk of demographic change, a BJP leader admitted off-record that there is no data to back this.

Incidentally, one of the casualties of this “love jihad” clamour has been a BJP leader. Last month, the party’s Yashpal Benam, the chairman of the Pauri Municipal Corporation and a former MLA, had to call off his daughter’s wedding to a Muslim man following protests by groups including the VHP and Bajrang and an online backlash.

Benam said everyone around him had welcomed the wedding, but the wedding card posted on social media led to a firestorm. “Such an environment was created that the situation is now not favourable for the wedding,” he said.

Before the 2022 Assembly elections and the current “love jihad” chorus, Uttarakhand had seen a series of incidents where hate speeches were made, including threats of violence. The police filed cases, but the Dhami government dragged its feet over the arrests. In the infamous Dharam Sansad incident of Haridwar, the accused are now out on bail. Haridwar SSP Ajai Singh said chargesheets have been filed in the case.