India: BJP leader calls off daughter’s wedding to Muslim man after backlash from right-wing outfits
Yashpal Benam
A member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from the northern Uttarakhand state was forced to call off his daughter’s wedding to a Muslim man after local right-wing groups objected to it.
The wedding was scheduled to take place on May 28. The invitation card instantly became viral, drawing the attention of local right-wing groups.
On Friday, the group belonging to Hindutva outfits – Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bhairav Sena, and Bajrang Dal—launched a protest by burning the effigy of the BJP leader Yashpal Benam at Jhanda Chawk in Pauri district.
"We strongly oppose such a marriage," the working president of district VHP Dipak Gaud had said, according to PTI news agency.
According to reports, the bride and groom met during their engineering course at a college in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh state. And as the time went by, they fell for each other.
Benam, who is Pauri’s municipal chairman and a former MLA, said that he thought of getting his daughter married to a Muslim man for her happiness, but had to postpone because of immense backlash from Hindutva outfits.
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“Now, I have to listen to the voice of the public as well," Benam said.
'No one had problems earlier'
He said that the inter-religious alliance was fixed two to three months ago, and no one had any objections at that time. But the growing backlash from the Hindutva outfits kept putting pressure on him, forcing him to postpone the wedding.
He said that it was difficult to go ahead with the plan because “an environment was created” as such that made his daughter’s wedding unfavourable.
The BJP member further said that he did not want the wedding to be held under police protection, and thanked the groom’s family for “understanding the situation”. He also thanked the police and district administration “for keeping an eye on the matter”.
Benam was earlier with the Congress but left the party a decade ago. He won as an independent from the Pauri Assembly constituency in 2007.
He had invited political leaders from both the BJP and the Congress to the wedding.
(With inputs from agencies)