GHAZIABAD: On Friday, two young employees of a multi-national company, a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl, decided to get married at a Ghaziabad court under the Special Marriage Act.
According to the news portal Patrika, the bride Nupur Agarwal, is the grand-daughter of Rajendra Agarwal, who was a District Magistrate of Ghaziabad in 1980.
The 28-year-old Nupur of Raj Nagar of Ghaziabad and 30-year-old Mansoor Farhad Yusuf Khan were classmates in Aligarh Muslim University and were in a relationship.
The couple, both major and mature enough, after completing their studies and with the consent of their families, decided to tie the knot.
A reception was held at the bride’s home to announce the happy occasion, but it was not to be as some Hindutva organizations created a ruckus calling the marriage a “love jihad”.
A massive group consisting of BJP workers and other Hindutva outfits including the Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and Jai Shiv Sena, created a huge ruckus outside Nupur’s home, claiming that the marriage was a product of “love-jihad.”
They staged a sit-in protest outside the bride’s parent’s house for about five hour and disrupted traffic.
A heavy police force rushed to the place and they first tried to pacify the protesters, asking them to move out of the area, but when they refused to relent, the police lathi-charged them.
The police even tried to organize a dialogue between the Bajrang Dal members and the family, but the protesters refused to budge.
The bride has done her PhD in Human Psychology, while her husband is an MBA and working with a private company. His family originally belongs to Aligarh, while his father lives in Delhi and also owns a house in Noida.
“They have decided to live together, so they have registered their marriage under the Special Marriage Act in Ghaziabad. We had arranged a reception party today (Friday). I don’t see any love-jihad in their marriage,” the bride’s father said.
On the other hand, Yusuf’s kin Javed, a resident of Aligarh, said, “The hate that is being spread in the name of ‘love jihad’ must be condemned. Both the Prime Minister and the UP CM need to take effective steps to stop such threats. This sort of rowdyism is also harming the image of our country. The right to marry a person of your choice is a part of our Constitution and should be above all controversies.”
Nupur’s family has filed an FIR at Ghaziabad’s Kavi Nagar police station against the activists.
They are in touch with the Noida SSP as they apprehend that on Saturday, “some mischief” could take place in Noida, at the house of the boy’s father.
The police said they used mild force to disperse the crowd. “How can the police allow people to barge into someone’s house? We got a distress call and we performed our duty,” said SSP H.N. Singh.
With IANS inputs