By Shinjinee Majumder & Ankita Mahalanobish
In BJP-ruled India, Hindu religious festivals have often metamorphosed from occasions for devotion and celebrations to rallying points for Hindutva fanatics to intimidate, provoke, and attack minority communities. Even by that standard, what happened in Munger, Bihar, on Wednesday, February 26, was unprecedented, hideous and appalling.
On that day, Bajrang Dal members took out a ‘religious’ procession to celebrate Maha Shivratri, which included at least 50 tableaux. One of them was a ‘Love Jihad’ tableau which consisted of an exhibit of a refrigerator filled with dismembered remains of a female doll smeared in ‘blood’. It was symbolic of the average Hindutva fanatic’s idea of interfaith couples involving Muslim men and Hindu women.
In imagery of the exhibition that has surfaced since, the doll was of a girl wearing a bindi, indicating that she is Hindu. Provocative phrases like Dharam se hatah, tukre meh kata (Translation: Separated from religion, cut into pieces) and Mera Wala Aisa Nahi… (Translation: Mine was different) can be seen imposed at the sides of the exhibit. The tableau also consisted of several newspaper cuttings, many of them referencing the 2023 Shraddha Walkar murder case. Shraddha was murdered by her Muslim boyfriend, Aftab Poonawalla, and her dismembered body parts were found in a fridge. This case further fuelled the ‘Love Jihad’ conspiracy and has since become a talking point for Hindutva hordes.
An attendee uploaded images of the exhibit on Instagram and thanked the Bajrang Dal and its parent organisation Vishva Hindu Parishad for the arrangements. “A heartfelt thanks to all the workers in Munger for their efforts in successfully organizing this remarkable tableau, raising awareness on issues like love jihad and religious conversion…”, wrote the man.
This story was originally published in altnews.in. Read the full story here.