Hyderabad: Bajrang Dal threatens to disrupt Garba, Dandiya events if non-Hindus found at venues

The Bajrang Dal has threatened all 'Garba' and 'Dandiya' organisers of disrupting their events if they allow non-Hindus to enter the venues.

Speaking to ANI on Saturday, Bajrang Dal media convener S Kailash claimed that groups of youth of non-Hindu communities often enter 'Garba' and 'Dandiya' venues with an intention "to misbehave with the girls dancing".

Kailash threatened to disrupt the programme if any non-Hindu especially Muslim's presence is found.

Bajrang Dal has also warned the organisers over hiring non-Hindu bouncers who, it claimed, help people from non-Hindus communities enter the venue.

"In recent times, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have observed that groups of youth of non-Hindu communities enter the event venues in disguise of being a Hindu and try to do love jihad with girls playing Dandia and Garba. Since they have no respect for the divinity of the event, they often misbehave with the women participating in Garba. They also manhandle the men who come to the rescue of the victim. Several people were arrested in this regard earlier but the number of such incidents is yet to come down," Kailash said.

He said, "We have asked event managers and venue owners not to let non-Hindus enter the venues. All participants should provide their Aadhar card to enter the venue so that we can easily recognise who is a Hindu and who is a non-Hindu. We warn the event managers to please take care of this."

Kailash said that the members of Bajrang Dal will be visiting the event venues in a group of 20-25 to check the presence of non-Hindus. "If any non-Hindu is found there, serious action will be taken and the people will be handed over to police. This would disrupt your programme. So we request you to take necessary action to save the programme and the festive mood," he said.

During Navaratri, 'Garba' and 'Dandiya' are organised in many places in and around the city. Hindus, especially Gujaratis, express their devotion to Goddess Durga through dance.