Kerala BJP plans campaign against growing ‘religious terror’ in state

“The party will apprise the Union Home Minister about all issues related to growing religious terrorism, including love jihad (as Hindutva organisations dub interfaith marriage involving Muslim men), which are detrimental to society,” Surendran said. “In the last six years, 24 BJP-RSS workers have been killed in Kerala, seven of them by the Popular Front of India. Scores of Christian women have been converted to Islam through the barbaric act of love jihad.”

The PFI, created in 2007 through the merger of three Muslim organisations, has pockets of influence in southern India, especially in Kerala and karnataka.

The BJP’s announcement follows the murder of an RSS worker in Palakkad, allegedly by PFI-SDPI activists, and interfaith marriage of CPI(M) workers in Kozhikode.

The RSS worker was hacked to death on Saturday, a day after a PFI cadre was killed, allegedly by BJP-RSS men in the same region of Palakkad.

Surendran denied any role of BJP workers in the PFI activist’s murder and alleged that the ruling CPI(M) has rolled out the red carpet for minority terrorism in Kerala. “Minority fundamentalism has grown as a threat to Kerala. The BJP will not go back on its campaign against terrorism even if more of our party workers are killed,’’ he said.

Sources in state BJP said the party will make another attempt to woo the Christian community, mainly on the “love jihad’’ issue. Party leaders say only the BJP can embrace “Christian concern in interfaith marriages’’, as CPI(M) and Congress have to adopt a balancing act without hurting either side.

Last week, when a CPI(M) worker belonging to Muslim community had married a Christian woman in Kozhikode, her family had blamed the role of external forces. After visiting the woman’s family, BJP leaders had sought an investigation by central agencies. The saffron party alleged that terror outfits were behind the marriage and offered all help to the woman’s family for a probe by central agencies.

Former CPI(M) legislator George M Thomas had initially stated that the interfaith marriage had hurt harmony in the region but made a climbdown later, saying that the party wants to promote interfaith marriages. The BJP has alleged that Thomas was forced to change his stand under duress from communal outfits.