BHOPAL, SEPTEMBER 29 Male garba participants in Indore better watch out. Their Hindu credentials will be checked before they are allowed to dance. This is the Bajrang Dal’s idea of screening Muslim participants, who, it believes mingle with Hindu girls and elope with them at the end of Navratri.
A week before the festival begins, Dal’s Indore unit has asked organisers of commercial garbas to ban Muslim men from venues, or face consequences. ‘‘We will ask participants to chant the names of Hindu gods or eat tulsi leaves. Hindus won’t mind, Muslims will. We will thrash them and also teach the organisers a lesson,’’ warned Pradeep Nair, Dal’s Mahanagar Sanyojak.
Said Dal’s Bhopal chief Devendra Rawat: ‘‘It’s a festival of Hindus, why should those from another religion take part? Only Hindu youths should be allowed because Muslim boys run away with Hindu girls.’’
‘‘They have no business to prevent anyone from entering the venues. We will not allow any nonsense. We have sufficient force, if anyone tries to take law into their hands, the SDMs and SPs have been instructed to deal with them sternly,’’ said Indore Collector Vivek Agrawal. ‘‘I have a force of 2,500 to deal with any such eventuality,’’ said SP Adarsh Katiar.
Surendra Puri of Royal Garba Mandal, which organises probably the biggest street garba in Indore’s Pandhrinath area, said he hasn’t heard of any such incident in two decades. ‘‘Muslim boys and girls always take part in our festival, we will not be cowed down by such threats,’’ he said.
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