Indian BJP leader tells crowd to abduct Muslim women
Rights groups and opposition leaders condemn hate speech as an open call for abduction and forced conversion under the guise of “love jihad” politics
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — A former lawmaker from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has ignited public anger after a video showed him telling a crowd that Hindu men who “bring Muslim girls” would be rewarded with jobs — remarks that opposition leaders and rights groups say amount to incitement to abduction and forced conversion.
The video, which circulated widely on Indian social media, captures Raghvendra Pratap Singh, a former BJP legislator from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, declaring, “The Hindu boy who brings a Muslim girl, we will arrange a job for him.” Local witnesses said the crowd responded with cheers.
According to reports cited by Indian media, Singh has previously made hate-filled statements targeting Muslims. His latest comments come amid increasing attempts by Hindu nationalist figures to legitimise anti-Muslim rhetoric through so-called “love jihad” campaigns — a term used by far-right groups to allege, without evidence, that Muslim men lure Hindu women into marriage to convert them to Islam.
Condemnation of Singh’s remarks was swift. Sanjay Singh, national spokesperson of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), called it “a direct incitement to criminality,” demanding immediate police action.
“If a leader publicly urges abduction and forced conversion, the law must follow,” he posted on X (formerly Twitter), accusing the Uttar Pradesh police of maintaining “double standards” by prosecuting Muslims for minor offences while ignoring hate speech by Hindu leaders.
Mayawati, leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and a prominent Dalit politician, described the statement as “hate speech” intended to sow communal and caste divisions. In a post on X, she warned that such rhetoric “spreads enmity, unrest, and anarchy” and emboldens extremists to take the law into their own hands.
Legal experts said the statement could fall under multiple criminal provisions, including those related to hate speech, abduction, and attempts to incite communal violence.
The incident adds to growing concern about impunity for hate speech in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, where opposition parties accuse the BJP-led government of selectively enforcing laws — aggressively prosecuting Muslims while overlooking violent or inflammatory acts by Hindu supremacist groups.
Analysts say the speech reflects a dangerous pattern in India’s Hindu-right politics — the objectification and sexualisation of Muslim women as tools of communal dominance.
By turning Muslim women’s bodies into battlegrounds for ideological assertion, they argue, such rhetoric not only fuels misogyny but also deepens religious polarisation and normalises violence against minorities.
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