Love Jihad who? Love Jihad what?

The recent development in the alleged Meerut gangrape and forced conversion case has forced the BJP and its right wing affiliates on the back foot. On Sunday, October 12, the 22-year-old from Meerut, who had earlier alleged that she was gang raped and forced to convert, said she had eloped with a Muslim man out of her own freewill.

Earlier the BJP and its associates had run a vitriolic campaign against what they termed as "love jihad". Terming the incident as a concerted conspiracy to convert Hindu girls, the right wingers had made it an electoral issue in the run-up to the 2014 Uttar Pradesh by-polls.

Around the same time a video of BJP MP from Gorakhpur, Yogi Adityanath's speech surfaced, exhorting Hindus to convert Muslim girls as retribution to Muslim youths marrying Hindu girls. This came a day after he was tasked with spearheading the BJP campaign for the September 13 by-polls in 11 Assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh.

With BJP having swept the Lok Sabha elections and winning a record 71 out of 80 seats in UP earlier this year, the party was now focusing on fortifying its position in the state. The ruling Samajwadi Party was shrunk to just five seats, that too from its first family, and the BSP failed to even open its account. Even the Congress could only manage two seats, Amethi and Rae Bareli.

The BJP and its saffron affiliates used the love jihad bogey to try to consolidate its position. Without giving thought to the consequences of their actions, the VHP carried out a poster campaign against it and further added fuel to an already polarised atmosphere.

With wounds still fresh from the Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur riots, the incident had put the whole western UP on the boil. With suspicion and distrust running high among communities, it made it even more difficult for those trying to rebuild their lives.

As all these events were unfurling, the newly elected Prime Minister chose to remain silent on the issue. Having won the recent Lok Sabha election on a development plank and making promises of taking everyone along, this silence reeked of political opportunism.

And now in spite of the woman's claim that she went with the man out of her own will, the Hindu outfits remain in denial. Still unfazed, VHP leaders call it a conspiracy of the state government and allege that the guilty are being protected by the police and the state government.

The political class has moved on to other issues and besides taking pot shots at each other no one seems to be talking about taking accountability for all the irresponsible and unsubstantiated statement that were made during this time.