Raghavendra Pratap Singh.
Credit: Facebook/ Raghvendra Pratap Singh
Lucknow: BJP was left red faced after one of its former MLA and senior leader publicly asked the Hindu youths to 'kidnap' Muslim girls and marry them saying that he would bear the expenses incurred on the marriage and also give them jobs and security.
The BJP leader, Raghavendra Pratap Singh made the controversial remarks while addressing a public meeting at Dumariyaganj in Uttar Pradesh's Siddharth Nagar district. Although he made the remarks last week, it came to light on Tuesday after a video purportedly containing the remarks went viral on social media.
''Main kah raha hun do ke badle kam se kam das Muslman ladkiyon uthao, unko Hindu banao. Shadi hum karayenge aur naukari ka intejam bhi karenge,'' (I am saying this...kidnap ten Muslim girls for every two Hindu girls, convert them to Hinduism...I will get you married with them and will also provide them jobs), Singh purportedly said in the meeting.
He said that two Hindu girls had embraced Islam in the past one month in Dumariyaganj. ''We can't allow that...we want ten for every two,'' he added.
Singh is also heard saying in the video that the state did not have a Samajwadi Party (SP) government, which used to indulge in Muslim appeasement. ''We now have the government of Yogi Adityanath...there is no need to worry,'' the saffron party leader said.
The ex-MLA later defended his remarks saying that it was not the responsibility of the Hindus alone to maintain communal harmony. He said that he had visited Dumariyaganj after two Hindu girls had been made to embrace Islam to assure the Hindus that he was with them and that such things would not be tolerated.
While the BJP leaders have not yet commented on the video, BSP supremo Mayawati on Tuesday termed the remarks 'shameful' and demanded stern action against the BJP leader. ''Spreading hatred in the name of religion, breaking the society and inciting unemployed youths have become the real politics of the BJP,'' Mayawati said in a post on 'X' (formerly Twitter).