While many of us may feel that girls elope only under dire circumstances, a BSP parliamentarian firmly believes that the main reason behind their elopement is mobile phones.

 BSP Rajya Sabha member Rajpal Singh Saini while speaking at a meeting of his community members in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district 450 kms from here, on Sunday night, advised parents against giving mobile phones to their daughters, lest they should elope one day.

“Did our parents have mobile phones? Did they die? Why do girls need mobiles?,” he asked the gathering.

“My mother, wife and sister do not have mobile phones even today and they do not face any problem,” Saini said, as many at the meeting nodded in approval.

The MP gave the same advice to a person, who had sought his help in tracing his daughter, who allegedly eloped a few days back. “Mobile phone is the reason behind your daughter’s elopement,” Saini told the distraught father.

He said that mobile phones “distract” their attention. “Take back the mobiles from your daughters, wives and sisters,” he asked the community members.
The MP, however, later made a hasty retreat and said, all he meant was mobiles should not be given to students as their attention is diverted.

The MP’s remarks came close on the heels of a series of diktats from “khaps” (caste panchayats) in UP banning use of mobile phones, love marriages and jeans.

A panchayat at Baghpat’s Asara village a few months ago had ruled that “love marriages will not be accepted” and that “such couples will be thrown out of the village.” It also ruled that girls would have to cover their heads when they venture out and women under 40 would not be allowed to visit the village market.