BJP slammed for raking up 'love jihad'

Lucknow, Aug 27: Political leaders and parties on Wednesday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (

) for raking up the issue of 'love Jihad' - a term used by the party to accuse Muslim men of luring Hindu girls into marriage and then forcing them to convert to Islam.

Urban Development Minister and senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mohammad Azam Khan accused the BJP of "trying to humiliate Muslims" by raking up such baseless issus.

Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his silence on the issue raised by the BJP, Khan said the prime minister himself does not want the well-being of Muslims. "Desh ka baadshaah nahin chahta ki akliyaton ka bhala ho," he said at an event.

He further said that it was a disgrace that the minorities were being treated shabbily, adding that the Muslims were leading a life of "jillat, dehshat and khauf" (humiliation and fear).

Senior Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Swamy Prasad Maurya called the coinage of the term 'love jihad' as "handiwork of mad minds" and accused the ruling the SP and the BJP of being hand in glove to divide the society.

"Hundreds of communal clashes in the state have taken place under the watch of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and the situation is very explosive," the leader of opposition in the state assembly said.

He said the state can only be managed well by the BSP chief Mayawati and added that people were seeing through the "game" of the SP-BJP and will teach them a lesson in the state assembly polls in 2017.

IANS