Nagpur: Milind Parande, central secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), at a public rally compared missionaries to Putna, a demoness in Mahabharata. Parande, the second in command of VHP, also said those engaged in love jihad are like Narkasura, also a demon from Mahabharata.
As the story goes, Putna tried to kill a young lord Krishna by feeding him poisoned milk. “Missionaries are like Putna, they give food, medicines, help open schools, but the real objective is to finish our dharma, and no noble cause,” he said.
According to mythology, Narkasura held 16,000 young women captive, and was killed b Krishna. “Such demons exist even today, they are engaged in love jihad. If Ravana’s family was wiped out for abducting Sita, and Duryodhana met his end for insulting Draupadi, why are our women still being taken away in the name of love jihad,” he said.
Figures released by the home ministry say over 12 lakh women are missing. “Though not specified, much of it is love jihad,” claimed Parande.
Parande was addressing VHP workers on Sunday as he flagged off the outfit’s Shaurya Jagran Yatra. Parande later told TOI that he was referring to missionaries, and not Christians in general, and “even love jihad is done by only a section of Muslims and not the entire community”. “It’s about targeting such persons, who are like asuras,” he said.
He also called for the Centre and Maharashtra to bring in a law against religious conversions. It is already there in states like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh.
On why the Centre hasn’t brought such a law so far, Parande said, “Maybe parties think in terms of political timing, I am at a loss to understand that. We have been demanding it for the last three years. Our domain is to put forward the people’s wishes.”
The idea behind Shaurya Jagran Yatra is “to protect the Hindu culture”. “The rallies will cover 90,000 villages across the country commemorating heroes who fought for the country since the times of Mughals, British, and wars post Independence,” he said.
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