Rajasthan government and to be more precise, Rajasthan’s Primary and Secondary Education Minister, Vasudev Devnani wants school students to learn about love jihad, how to stop it among several things. Government and private schools in Jaipur have been asked to attend the five-day Hindu Spiritual and Service Fair (HSSF) organised by the Chennai-based organisation Hindu Spiritual and Service Foundation. The fair started on November 16.
This is how we make our children fit for the job market, and become intelligent and responsible citizens. #education or #communalism https://t.co/HMbpbLcc29 via @IndianExpress
— Prince Thomas (@newLekhakh) November 19, 2017
Human Life foundation has been displaying it’s charitable activities in Hindu Spiritual& Service Fair at Jaipur. Feeling energized.
— Hemraj Chaturvedi (@PtHemrajJaipur) November 19, 2017
Speaking to the Indian Express, Jaipur’s Additional District Education Officer Deepak Shukla that ‘government and private schools in Jaipur have been asked to “help” organisers of the fair by getting students to attend it. He further added that it was upon the directions of Primary and Secondary Education Minister Vasudev Devnani.’
Poisoning young minds: Rajasthan govt sends school students to Jaipur fair, for lessons on ‘love jihad’, communal & casteist bigotry. Shame @VasundharaBJP https://t.co/mjPYHp4smE
— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) November 19, 2017
Raje govt in Rajasthan, with help from Hindu social orgs, educating school girls about Love Jihad. BJP should become open about it and do it in every state ruled by them https://t.co/AVdC7Mmrhe via @IndianExpress
— Blue Lemon (@Indopolity) November 19, 2017
According to a report in The Wire, officially the fair aims to “show how Hindu spirituality and traditional Hindu lifestyle provide a solution to contemporary challenges – family and human values, women’s honour, patriotism, environment, ecology and pollution.” Their website declares that “the objective of the fair is to correct an unfair perception about a majority population of the country and build a proper image of India.”
The report adds that the Foundation that has organised the fair in Jaipur describes itself as an independent one. but it is linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliate, the Rashtriya Sewa Bharati. Also, several RSS and BJP leaders are among those who oversee foundation’s activities in its different centres across the country.
According to HSSF’s website, they have centres at 12 cities, except Chennai, which include Guwahati, Raipur, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bangaluru, Ranchi among others.
The Indian Express report states that the fair has a VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad Stall), which is distributing pamphlets on love jihad. Their pamphlets talks of Bollywood actors Saif Ali Khan and Aamir leaving Hindu wives and then again “ensnaring” Hindu women. Not just this, the report mentions that the pamphlets caution that ‘beauty parlours, mobile recharge shops, ladies’ tailors, Muslim hawkers, etc are some of the places where “love jihad” takes place.’ The pamphlet further mentions that one can check love jihad by checking/ analysing the mobile phones, notebooks of sisters and daughters and also, by sending someone to their college/university.
Rajasthan Brahmin Mahasabha, Shri Dhobi (Rajak) Ekta Manch, Akhil Bharatiya Khatik Samaj, Kshatriya Yuvak Sangh, Bharatiya Hindu Sena, Gau Raksha Sewa Sansthan are a few other stalls at the fair. From encouraging young minds to construct the Ram Temple in Ayodhya to listing evils of milk from Jersey cow, ‘requesting everyone to take an oath of vegetarianism’, and talking about ‘controversial activities of Christian missionaries’, the pamphlets at these stalls have a lot of things to teach young school students in the name of nationalism.
