Sadhvi Prachi has now reached new depths. Recently on March 1, the BJP leader kicked up another controversy during a VHP meeting in Dehradun by saying that Hindus should boycott the Khan triumvirate of Bollywood as they promote love jihad.
“Our children do not get right sanskars from the movies of the Khans. They promote love jihad,” she said, appealing to Hindus to not put up posters of the Khans on their walls.
“The Khans have conspired and lured Hindu girls be it Sangeeta Bijlani (with whom Salman Khan was rumoured to have an affair in the past), Malaika Arora (wife of Salman’s brother, Arbaaz), Reena Dutt (Aamir’s former wife) or Kiran Rao (Aamir’s wife now). Why do they always find Hindu girls? Why did they never had any affairs with Muslim girls,” the Sadhvi told a TV channel.
Calling for a boycott of the Khan triumvirate’s films by the right wing Hindu outfits, she said, “I, for one, would ask the Bajrangis to tear the posters of films of Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan off the walls and burn them in the fire of Holi.”
It was only a month ago that the Sadhvi had stirred a hornet’s nest by urging Hindu women to have four children as Muslims were “trapping our daughters through ‘love jihad'”.
But this time, it is likely that very few people will pay heed to her words. The Sadhvi is soon likely to discover at her own cost that in India Bollywood and Cricket are two cults that transcend religion. In the last 25 years of the Khans’ reign, we have yet to hear a youngster or even an adult say that they don’t like the Khans because of their religion. Check out what this youngster has to say of Sadhvi Prachi.
Episodes like this do not reflect well on the Modi government, even as he is trying hard to make development his primary platform. It was only recently that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself appealed to all religious groups to act with restraint and mutual respect and his assertion that his government will not allow any religious group from the majority or minority to incite hatred against others, covertly or overtly.
It’s clear that these instructions have somehow filtered down the party ranks because Uttar Pradesh BJP president Laxmikant Bajpai said the party has nothing to do with the Sadhvi. “She is neither a member nor is associated with any activities of the BJP. No importance should be given to such people,” Bajpai told PTI.
But clearly Modi is rapidly losing control of other members of the family, the Sangh Parivaar. They recently came under fire when RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat accused Mother Teresa of proselytisation to Christianity. And Sadhvi Prachi endorsed his sentiments again in her speech on March 1. The VHP and RSS’s actions may tie in fully with the image that they wish to project. But Modi and the BJP, who are clearly trying to peddle a different image – that of a government which stands for development, can ill afford any more such episodes which garner negative publicity.
Besides, after Obama’s remarks on the religious uneasiness in India, eyes across the globe are clearly on India, waiting for the BJP government to make another wrong move. Modi’s position today is that of the upstart younger son who has been given a chance by the elders in his family, but he finds the ways of the elders too embarrassing and impediment to their own growth. How does one tell the elders in the family to toe their line without compromising on the Indian tradition of according utmost respect to elders, especially the ones who would lose no time in reminding him that it was they who made him what he is today?
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