The firebrand BJP leader and BJP MlA from Indore-3 Assembly constituency, Usha Thakur's has asked his party workers to maintain strict vigil on the minority youth during garba and asked to confirm the identity of the youth before allowing them in the garba venues.
The ‘dictates' of the MlA may cause an embarrassment for her own party.
Thakur has asked party workers to ensure that Muslim youths are not allowed to enter garba venues in her constituency, Indore (3), during the upcoming annual Navdurga festival alleging that Hindu girls are lured by them and converted to Islam as part of the “love jehad” conspiracy to distort population ratio in the country.
Usha Thakur, who is also state BJP vice-president, said that she would soon be writing to all garba organisers in her constituency to allow only Hindu men inside the garba venues by making electoral photo-identity cards mandatory for entry. “If they (Muslim youths) want to take part in the festival, they should first convert to Hinduism. Muslim youths hoodwink the organisers by sporting tilak on their forehead and get inside the venue to mingle with Hindu girls. I am going to write to the organisers to insist on electoral identity cards for men and allow only Hindu men inside the venue,'' she said.
Takur is also convener of an outfit Samagra Kranti Chetna Manch, has released leaflets listing 11 points on “maintaining discipline, culture and propriety” during the Navdurga festival, which begins later this month.
According to her, the 11 points were compiled during a “brainstorming session attended by intellectuals, prominent citizens and invitees”.The list insists people to wear traditional dresses, play religious and folk songs and use earthen idols against those made from plaster of Paris.It asks people to use ghee (clarified butter made from cow milk) and prohibits them from dancing to “puerile and indecent” songs.The list ends with reference of “love jihad” but without talking about Islam and insists on identity cards without elaborating it.
Thakur, who began her political career as a municipal councillor in 1994 and who was elected to Madhya Pradesh assembly in the last assembly elections from Indore-3, a strong Congress bastion, has also expressed her abhorrence against women wearing low-waist ghagras and backless cholis during the festival.